Sunday, June 03, 2007
Knocked Up
This review by Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post pretty much captures my feelings about the movie.
She basically says that it is a great, funny movie, but that it is hard to believe the central romance of the movie. She gives her reasons very eloquently and so there is no reason for me to repeat them here. But I want to add something. She is too old for him! We are not given Alison's age in the movie, although we are given Ben's (which is 23). Is Alison supposed to be 23 too? Because it does not feel like she is playing a 23 year old woman. She just seems too comfortable in her job. She just struck me like a character out of Sex and the City. Her reaction to Ben at first reminded me of that episode in which Carrie talks about dating men in their twenties. And her whole approach to the baby reminded me as that of Miranda: which was something along the lines of this is something my career will have to deal with. Katherine Heigl is almost 29 and Seth Rogen is 25. 3.5 isn't always a huge difference but it can be. The whole premise of the movie is that she is more or less maturely ready to have this baby, and he has to grow up. Well, there is no question Ben's development is arrested. But he is being compared to her level of development. Is doesn't seem quite fair to compare a person in their early 20s with a person in their late 20s.
I mean my particular problem with the couple is the same as everyone's problem with the movie as a whole, that Alison is not a particularly well-defined character. I think maybe if they had given her more context: particularly a specific point in life, the coupling might have seemed more realistic.
She basically says that it is a great, funny movie, but that it is hard to believe the central romance of the movie. She gives her reasons very eloquently and so there is no reason for me to repeat them here. But I want to add something. She is too old for him! We are not given Alison's age in the movie, although we are given Ben's (which is 23). Is Alison supposed to be 23 too? Because it does not feel like she is playing a 23 year old woman. She just seems too comfortable in her job. She just struck me like a character out of Sex and the City. Her reaction to Ben at first reminded me of that episode in which Carrie talks about dating men in their twenties. And her whole approach to the baby reminded me as that of Miranda: which was something along the lines of this is something my career will have to deal with. Katherine Heigl is almost 29 and Seth Rogen is 25. 3.5 isn't always a huge difference but it can be. The whole premise of the movie is that she is more or less maturely ready to have this baby, and he has to grow up. Well, there is no question Ben's development is arrested. But he is being compared to her level of development. Is doesn't seem quite fair to compare a person in their early 20s with a person in their late 20s.
I mean my particular problem with the couple is the same as everyone's problem with the movie as a whole, that Alison is not a particularly well-defined character. I think maybe if they had given her more context: particularly a specific point in life, the coupling might have seemed more realistic.
# posted by Julia @ 10:35 AM 
