I just finished reading the rare Vanity Fair cover story that didn't make me sicker than I currently am. It was with Katherine Heigl (she's wearing a hat that could eat the ones Rosalind Russell wears in "His Girl Friday"). Heigl articulates her own feelings about the women in Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up": they're no fun; what's up with that? Heigl, of course, is the latest voice in a gathering chorus of women mystified by the lingering high of that movie. The explanation of that mystery usually begins with: "For real? Him?"
"Knocked Up" is extremely funny and, in many ways, very true. But a lot of those ways have only to do with the male characters in a manner that shortchanges the women. In the days, weeks, months after seeing it, that's the one thing that really stuck with me. It's what keeps the movie trapped in a sitcom's box: Schubbly funny guy; hot unfunny girl = laugh-track love. Apatow, of course, is far more sophisticated than merely that. He's trying to turn romantic comedy on its head-- it's just that upside-down his movie sometimes plays like a show on CBS. I tried to get at the nature of that this summer. (Meanwhile, what should we do with Alison's harsh mother -- Joanna Kerns -- or Ben's roommate's stoner-nymph girlfriend. What if she got pregnant? That'd be funny, too, right?)
In any case, over at Slate Meghan O'Rourke has crafted a fine close-read of the comedy disparity in "Knocked Up." Her breakdown of the hotel heart-to-heart between Pete and Ben is right on the money. She's even bothered to think about Pete's "tastes like a rainbow" line. This is not the last we'll be hearing about all this, especially as more people see "Juno," which is an indirect answer-movie to Apatow's (for one thing, a woman wrote it). Although, the darker companion piece is Cristian Mungiu's upcoming "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days," about a Romanian who has an abortion. It's the anti-Apatow.
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