The First Time's the Charm
When Losing It Makes You a Winner
By Andrew Bender

The highlight of your weekend is making egg salad, your apartment is crammed with action figures, and your co-workers wonder whether you’re a serial killer. We can’t help you with the first two, but on the last point, we’ve learned, you can just tell them that you’re a virgin.

The virgin in question is Andy, played by the hangdog-hilarious Steve Carell (of the American version of “the Office” TV series, “Anchorman” and “Bruce Almighty”). If you thought that jokes about loneliness, sexuality and the human body had been played out, this film proves that they’re the gift that keeps on giving.

Part of that is thanks to a laugh-a-minute ensemble cast. Andy’s colleagues in a San Fernando Valley electronics store (played by Paul Rudd, Romany Malco and Seth Rogen) make it their mission to cure him of his delicate condition, guiding him through the usual succession of babes, booze and body waxing (the latter a scream in both senses of the word). Cameos by Elizabeth Banks as a bookstore clerk with a seriously wild side and Leslie Mann as a drunken bridesmaid are scene-stealers.

Things look up when Andy meets single mom Trish (the eminently watchable Catherine Keener); their relationship feels authentic despite the movie’s premise, two quirky characters in search of a place. And Jane Lynch (“A Mighty Wind,” “Best in Show”) as the store manager does her dead-level, deadpan best—wait for her Guatemalan love song.

But the film is really Carell’s, and gosh-darn it he carries it really well. He’s a pretty fearless comedian, more than willing to take a pratfall for the team. What sets him apart from other comedians, though, is that he dials back his performance instead of playing for laughs, meaning that when hell breaks loose—and believe us, it does—it’s in a big, big way.