JOLLY DAYS

Knocked Up

We have been trying out Blockbuster so Knocked Up was in the queue. We had heard it was funny. It was. The movie was an extended sitcom, with some very good improvisational performances — a warm, friendly haze of a movie.

Apatow is able to focus on character and it helps carry the movie because the plot often sags, and at the end, it just fails. But it doesn't matter, because you like the movie. Sort of the way we elect a president.

When you like something you look up the perpetrators and that means Wikipedia.

Seth Rogen as Ben Stone was given a co-Producer title and the Wiki says he was a standup as a teenager and pretty much sailed into acceptance in Hollywood. He must be one likable guy because Apatow encouraged him to get into the movies in the first place. Rogen is very funny and reminds me — I still haven't figured out exactly who he reminds me of. He is just familiar — a wonderful trait for an actor. His voice sometimes sounds like Chris Farley, but he seems so…familiar.

Rogen has been flowing in the right comedy stream for awhile — he worked for Sacha Baron Cohen for one thing. I think the Wiki said he lived on a Kibbutz, had a social worker mom and father who worked for a non-profit that advocated the use of Yiddish.

The stunner of the movie was Katherine Heigl as Alison Scott. “Stunner” in the many senses of the word. She was just beautiful. According to the Wiki man she really had a tough life, going from a wealthy New Canaan upbringing, to a free ride into modeling via a relative handing out her photos to modeling agencies, and so in her teens becoming a model without hardly breaking a nail. It was one tough bump in the road after another for Katherine.

But the real story is that she is such a terrific comic actress. Her wonderful reaction shots, her human warmth and openness made the movie. No Kathy, no movie. If Judd Apatow has a genius, it is for casting and then letting his kids run free.

And speaking of getting knocked up and around and around:

The Giants / Pats game was basically the Super Bowl. A great game — what the Super Bowl should be but seldom is. You have to give credit to the Giants, fierce to the end, with nothing in the playoff picture at stake. Probably, when all else is tallied, the best game of the season.