Katherine Heigl Also Thinks "Knocked Up" Sucks

When I first saw Knocked Up and got really bullshit about it, I thought I'd be in the minority about it.  Turns out that doesn't seem to be the case; most conversations I have about the movie naturally turn towards the story being implausible and stupid.  At first, I suspected my objections were a result of my mood as much as anything; I'm relieved to know I'm not alone in wondering what the hell was going on here.

Now comes even more objections... except these objections come from someone who was actually in the movie.

"[Knocked Up was] a little sexist. It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it, on some days. I'm playing such a bitch; why is she being such a killjoy? Why is this how you're portraying women? Ninety-eight percent of the time it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie.

I do join the A.V. Club blogger in wondering exactly how little responsibility Katherine Heigl thinks she had for the "killjoy" portrayal.  And I'm definitely on board with Knocked Up, warts and all, being brave enough to not shy away from showing women acting like uncontrollable, wrongheaded nutbags.  God knows, it actually does happen every once in a while, so Judd Apatow gets props for that.

But the proof is in the pudding.  I walked away from that movie rolling my eyes at the thought of Seth Rogen ever putting up with that woman's shit.  The end result is a nutbag woman doing nutbag woman things... and a director communicating empathy for it.  Puhleeze.

Strictly from a storytelling perspective, he's been given no good reason to stick with her.  And it's not from her character being one-dimensional; it was actually a very deep portrait of a stressed-out woman making mistakes.  That she is as much as fault as anyone allows Rogen's character to approach the final conflict without having to correct a cliched "stupid man mistake" like most romantic leads have to do.  That in turn allows us in the audience to concentrate on what Rogen will do, instead of wondering how he will correct an obvious mistake.  It frees the character to choose a path without being hindered by group notions of "right" and "wrong"... it's strictly a personal decision.  That's actually a nice touch.

If only it didn't lead to such a damn fool ending.  After two hours of plausibility, it sucks to see five minutes of utterly laughable bullshit undermine everything that preceded it.  Goddammit.  And now I'm pissed off all over again.  Why did a smart movie have to be so stupid?  Grrrr.

Anyway, I fully intend to see Knocked Up again in colder blood.  The depth of my disappointment suggests that further viewings are necessary.  After all, it was indeed a laugh-out-loud hilarious movie, and I want so badly to love it.  So I'll give it another chance.  I'm not likely to budge on the bottom line, but we'll see.

Knocked Up

Given my love of The 40-Year Old Virgin, one of the defining films (let alone comedies) of the decade, a letdown was inevitable. But I was still expecting a lot more than I got from Knocked Up, which tries and fails to resonate like its predecessor.

The heart of my objection is in Knocked Up's refusal to play by its own rules. The film is littered with astute observations about parenthood, marriage, and adulthood. But the sheer quantity of laughably contrived behavior on the part of each main character invalidates all of those observations. The setting is Sturges, but the story is Shadyac, i.e. a bunch of horseshit. It's a sheep in wolf's clothing... a fairy tale hot dog slathered with the mustard of modern-day moral philosophy. (Sorry.)


A model relationship... circa 1832

Don't get me wrong. Knocked Up is hilarious. Just as a comedy, it succeeds. But once it starts taking itself and its story seriously, the whole thing falls apart. It tries to be more than just a funny movie, and fails. While I respect the effort, its failures reflect on the rest of the movie.

Instead of another 40YOV, it's another Wedding Crashers... a very funny movie with lots of caveats.