40-Year-Old Virgin Movie Review

In today’s society sexuality is no longer the taboo topic it used to be. It’s discussed quite openly among scientists and scholars all the way down to classes offered on the subject and socially among friends. Although movies about sex have been around for roughly 80 years, more and more come out each year discussing an array of topics relating to sex. The 40-Year-Old Virgin is one of these movies. It’s the story of Andy Stitzer who has managed to make it 40 years without having sex.

The story basically takes the viewer through his life and how his friends and co-workers tirelessly tease him and try to “help” him get laid. Andy’s sexual development isn’t discussed in depth. The developmental sexual stages of infancy, early childhood, preadolescence, and adolescence are left out of the movie, but several instances are shown in his young adult to adult life in which he was on the verge of doing “it” with girls in college that show him fumbling with the situation. In one instance, he’s getting involved with a girl and as they begin foreplay she licks his toes and he kicks her in the face.

This obviously kills the mood and inevitably kills his chances of sleeping with the woman. It is assumed that during adolescence and into high school Andy was a loner, and didn’t have many friends, and definitely no female friends. This could’ve led to several crises in Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. He never had the chance to develop skills in adolescence to sustain long term relationships, or become knowledgeable about certain sexual subjects kids learn from one another in social situations.

The crisis between identity and role confusion was probably one of the major one’s that molded Andy into the person he’d become, simply because he didn’t really have career, he just started in an electronics store and never seem to be concerned with doing anything more, until the end of the movie, and also he showed a preference for more childish things, such as his massive collection of figurines, comic books, and video games. He never left the childhood things behind to develop into more of an adult. To Andy his sexuality wasn’t a problem.

He was happy with his life and kind of just assumed that after the few disastrous sexual encounters he had had that maybe it just wasn’t going to happen for him so he quit trying. As he begins hanging out more and more with his co-workers, all of whom are prototypical male “chauvinistic pigs,” he’s constantly peer pressured to do the deed. They make it their mission to get him laid and begin taking him out to bars and hanging out with slutty, drunk girls. The movie addresses exactly what goes on in most social situations in bars.

Groups of girls or guys meet in bars, drink, and in some cases end up going home together and sleeping together. That’s become somewhat of a norm in society today. But once Andy has been introduced to the new way of getting laid, he becomes agitated with his friends. He doesn’t want to just sleep with a woman, he wants to form a close loving relationship and make it a meaningful act, while his friends just want him to do it because they see it as more of a recreational act rather than an emotional act.

Once Andy meets a girl he actually likes and eventually gets involved with he’s still berated by his friends to sleep with her, which stresses him out even more. The peer pressure in the movie is exactly what guys deal with in real life. Women are seen as conquests in high school and on into later years by many men and unless you conquer as many women as you can, you aren’t considered a man or manly to your peers. Of course if Andy had been a female the movie would be ridiculous and not comical.

Women, for the most part, are seen as clean and proper for not having sex. Although one may become known as prudish, the stigma isn’t as bad as for a man who is still a virgin. Women talk about sex with each other just like men do but the more partners a woman has the dirtier she’s viewed as. As the movie ends Andy of course goes with his heart and tells Trish he’s a virgin. She has come to love Andy for who he is so this doesn’t make a difference to her. This introduces how integral communication is when developing and having a sexual relationship with someone.

They eventually sleep together, and as the joke goes in society, Andy “finishes” in about a minute the first time. I think this comical point is a good one. For one thing, it recognizes what can and does often happen with many men, while at the same time shows that it’s not a huge deal and doesn’t always leave to the woman laughing and ending the relationship. The story advocates what are considered to be high moral values. The age old tale of a man and woman falling in love and not have intercourse until both are ready to.

Although it leaves out the part of being married, our society as a whole as deviated from marriage as a necessity in a sexual relationship. I thought the movie was a good light hearted comedy. I’d give it 2 ?… stars. It addressed many true sexual situations that most people have to deal with sometime in their lives. It showed the positives and negatives of one night stands, and also the good things about waiting until you find that one special person. It showed that being yourself and trusting in your heart no matter what anyone else says will eventually lead to you finding that special person.