Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen in Knocked Up. (Courtesy photo)

A thorny contradiction pokes at Knocked Up, the new comedy from writer-director Judd Apatow. It’s simultaneously a raunchy, pot-smoker’s movie and an insightful look at marriage and the challenges of sharing a pregnancy. The contradiction, of course, is all too human and the reality of Apatow and many of his friends—and many of my friends. Knocked Up may be the best movie about parenthood since, well, Parenthood. It’s the best raunchy comedy since Apatow’s sublime The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and perhaps the best movie I’ve seen this year. If you can embrace the contradiction, you’re in store for a very funny, very thoughtful film.

Seth Rogen plays Ben, a nice, slovenly, unemployed guy who shares a house with four male friends. Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy) plays Alison, an attractive, single young woman who has just been promoted to an on-air role at E! Entertainment. Alison lives in the guesthouse of her sister, Debbie, and her husband, Pete (Lesley Mann and Paul Rudd). She and Debbie go out to celebrate her promotion, and, while slightly under the influence, she meets Ben. They end up at her place, some miscommunication ensues during the height of passion, and eight weeks later Alison is throwing up a lot. Alison and Ben uncomfortably decide to get to know each other in the seven months before their unplanned baby arrives.

Three of Ben’s four friends are played by Jason Siegel, Jay Baruchel, and Martin Starr, who, like Rogen, were on Apatow’s beloved television series Freaks and Geeks. The fourth is played by Jonah Hill, who will be starring in the upcoming film Superbad.

Leslie Mann is Apatow’s wife and also appeared in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, along with Paul Rudd. Debbie and Pete’s kids are played by Mann and Apatow’s kids. See what’s going on here? Apatow is building a stock company of offbeat, very appealing actors. It’s an offshoot of the ever-growing Ben Stiller–Will Ferrell group that dominates Hollywood comedy these days. By the time it’s over, this era may end up giving us the greatest collection of movie comedies since the 1930s.

If you’re not familiar with Seth Rogan yet, you probably will be by the end of the summer. By then he will have starred in Knocked Up, written the equally indecent-looking August release Superbad, and contributed a voice to Shrek the Third. Rogan is an even more unlikely comic star than Apatow’s last unlikely comic star, Steve Carell. Rogen possesses a mix of gruffness and awkward sincerity, and his onscreen presence is unlike anyone else’s. Katherine Heigl’s contrast to Rogen as a performer is as strong as that of their characters. Heigl is great, but that contrast leads to one of the movie’s few vulnerable spots. Try as she might, Heigl never quite seems able to fall for Rogen. The two work hard together and have a number of wonderful moments, but even by the end it’s hard to feel that these two are going to make it in the long run.

The supporting cast is absolutely wonderful. Paul Rudd, enjoying a comic career renaissance surpassed only by Alec Baldwin, is great as the henpecked Pete. Leslie Mann, grating as an ingénue 10 years ago, is getting better with each supporting character role. It doesn’t hurt that she and Rudd have most of the movie’s best lines. Luckily there are a lot of great lines to go around, and the rest of the supporting cast get their moments, too.

The film’s other vulnerable area is the seam between the smart relationship movie and the smart raunchy comedy. When Apatow serves up the requisite crazy moments, they feel out of place. The film is too smart to excuse the stoner freak-out scene at Cirque de Soleil. But how else to achieve the touching our-women-are-awesome freak-out-in-the-hotel-room scene that immediately follows? Ultimately the relationship movie cannot earn its stripes without the raunchy movie, and the two are held together by Apatow’s commitment to honesty. What elevates both Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin above most of their brethren is their sincerity. Apatow realizes that the more honest you are, the more outlandish your behavior can be.

The question as to whether Apatow and company could lure in the young crowds and shock them with a very smart movie about relationships has already been answered. Knocked Up surprised many with its astounding success last weekend, in spite of claiming no major stars. The real question is whether it will cross over and find the mature audience that it deserves. Yes, you’ll have to sit through some pretty foul language and undignified behavior. But those moments, such as the most unrelentingly realistic birth ever shown in a mainstream comedy, may be the ones you recognize from your life. Knocked Up is epitomized by its reluctant hero: boorish yet undeniably charming.

 
Alex Manugian lives in Sherman Oaks, California, and works for the Cartoon Network. He grew up in Groton and has reviewed movies for Harvard residents for many years.