This Is 40
Short description
Pete and Debbie are approaching their fortieth birthdays, and life has become a balancing act that is starting to tip over. Their daughters, thirteen-year-old Sadie and eight-year-old Charlotte, fight constantly, the family finances are strained, and the couple's marriage is under pressure. Pete runs an independent record label that is struggling, and he finds himself the only man in a household dominated by women. Debbie, for her part, is dealing with the anxieties of turning forty, her own business troubles, and the daily chaos of parenting. Somewhere in all of this, the two of them have to work out how to forgive each other and enjoy what is left of their lives together. The film is a spin-off from Knocked Up, picking up the characters of Pete and Debbie several years on.
Judd Apatow directed and wrote the screenplay, working from his own characters. It was his fourth film as director, following The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Funny People, and it sits between that earlier work and Trainwreck. Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann return as the leads, with Maude Apatow and Iris Apatow as their daughters, alongside John Lithgow and Megan Fox.
Made on a budget of 35 million US dollars, the film took about 88 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.2 from roughly 159,000 votes, and the audience score on TMDB is 5.9 from around 2,400 votes. The critics' rating stands at 5.9 from 218 reviews, close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Ben and Allison, the main characters of "Knocked Up" (2007), do not appear in this quasi-sequel, but there are references to them. Allison's painting can be seen on the wall, and Pete mentions getting marijuana cupcakes from Ben. Three other characters from "Knocked Up" (2007) also appear in this film: Jodi (Charlyne Yi) – previously a kind drug addict, and in this film a worker at Debbie’s store; Jason (Jason Segel) – previously Ben’s best friend, now Debbie’s personal trainer; Tim Bagley simply reprises his role as the obstetrician-gynecologist Pellagrino.
- Sadie (Maude Apatow) is a big fan of the series “Lost” (2004–2010), and Jack (Matthew Fox) is repeatedly shown on screen. In "Knocked Up" (2007), Ben is very dismissive of Matthew Fox, saying there’s nothing special about him.
- The role of Debbie was played by the director Judd Apatow’s wife, Leslie Mann. Their two daughters, Iris Apatow and Maude Apatow, also played the roles of the children. Judd Apatow decided to give the role of Pete to Paul Rudd, a family friend.
- Pete (Paul Rudd) jokes in the film, comparing his sexual prowess to that of David Schwimmer (and Ross, Schwimmer's character from the series "Friends", 1994–2004). Thus, he makes it clear that he thinks both Pete and Schwimmer are not very good in bed. Schwimmer's publicist told the Chicago Sun-Times that Schwimmer had not been informed in advance whether he agreed to be the object of this joke. Judd Apatow explained that he did not intend any offense. Paul Rudd, meanwhile, was a frequent guest on the set of "Friends" (1994–2004) during the last two seasons of the show.
- When the whole family is watching television, they're showing the cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants" (1999) (specifically the episode "That's no lady" from season 4), but as soon as a quarrel starts, they switch to a different episode ("No weenies alowed" from season 3).
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