Knocked Up

Last night we took our lives in our hands and went to Didcot to see ‘Knocked Up’ at the cinema. Judd Apatow’s comedy starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann tells the story of two very different people who meet at a club one night and have a drunken one night stand. Ben Stone is a 23 year old ’slacker’ who lives with his friends, gets stoned every day and plans to make money from a website that gives information about nudity in films. Alison Scott is a career minded girl working at a TV station who just gets a promotion, hence the reason why she is out at the club celebrating when she meets Ben.
After a misunderstanding involving contraception, Alison finds out she is pregnant 8 weeks later. She contacts Ben and the two get to know each other in an attempt to see if they are right for each other.
‘Knocked Up’ is the latest in a positive trend of teen comedies, as the dialogue is a lot wittier than these kind of films used to be. Most charcters are well drawn out, coming over realistically and sympathetically which is far more engaging than anything in the recent ‘teen gross out’ comedies. The plot is nothing new of course, but the journey the audience experiences is refreshing. the dialogue is witty but realistic- when Ben’s friends are ripping it out of each other it’s completely believable, you feel like one of the group. The relationship between Ben and Pete is nicely drawn out, a mixture of ‘older brother worship’ and annoyance at his treatment of his wife.
‘Knocked Up’ is a huge success for Apatow, following on from ‘the 40 yr old Virgin’ and I can’t wait to see ‘Superbad’ more than ever.