The 40 Year Old Virgin
Universal Pictures | Release Date: August 19, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Buoyantly clever and amusing. Read full review
90
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Virgin is astoundingly astute but also wondrously clever, written with more care and joy than any hundred comedies to come out of Hollywood in years. Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
It's an unconscionably funny sex farce that, by its end, turns into a tender and honest romance, an acute portrait of loneliness and, believe it or not, a musical. This is a movie Blake Edwards might have made. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
Takes a premise that, in less competent, less empathetic hands, would have had the depth of a pancake, gives it a soul and turns it into a surprisingly sweet and funny ode to male friendship and middle-aged love. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Rude, raunchy, uproarious, yet with elements that are surprisingly sweet. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Surprisingly insightful, as buddy comedies go, and it has a good heart and a lovable hero. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
Yes, Steve Carell can carry a movie. Yes, Judd Apatow can direct a movie. Yes, we'll all relate to a middle-aged virgin. And yes, when an aesthetician yells to her assistant "we're gonna need more wax," you best run. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Works on every level. The humor and language are as crude as an R rating allows, but Carell and Apatow's script is so hip, funny and - yes - innocent that it's never offensive. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Probably the most sweet-spirited sex comedy ever made. It's pretty funny, too. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Hilarious and imaginatively crude with a surprising sweet and subtle aftertaste that prevents it from flopping, limp and brainless, into the sugary abyss of romantic predictability. Read full review
88
PremiereRyan Devlin
Even in the service of silliness, no one plays tragic, desperate, and beautiful better than Keener, who together with Carell, makes this film both laugh out loud funny and humane. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Funny and realistically romantic, but almost never at the same time. Read full review
80
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
What keeps The 40-Year-Old Virgin out of Rob Schneider territory, however, is: 1) the fact that it's pretty darn funny, and in a way that feels consistently real, and 2) the fact that it's actually an excellent date movie. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Even a starring role in the American version of the British show "The Office," which has given Mr. Carell a higher profile, conveys neither his sheer likability nor his range as an actor, both crucial to making this film work as well as it does. Read full review
80
SalonStephanie Zacharek
This is a superb, delicately calibrated comic performance: Carell never allows the character to swerve into excessive cuddliness. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
The 40-Year-Old-Virgin is a hit, I would warrant, because it’s truly dirty and truly romantic at the same time, a combination that's very hard to pull off. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Steve Carell, best known as a team player on "The Daily Show," "The Office" and such movies as "Anchorman," earns top-banana status as Andy. He is flat-out hilarious. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Apatow's film succeeds in having its virginity and losing it, too. Like "Wedding Crashers," it purges its cynicism with romanticism. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Carell accomplishes the task of being sweet-natured without becoming cloying. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
A lot of the credit for what's right with 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin goes to the screenplay, which Carell and Apatow wrote. They like these characters and, when it matters, they dare to give them feelings, none truer than Andy's. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's not great moviemaking -- it isn't as accomplished or funny as the best of the Farrelly brothers' films, say -- but it's got real appeal. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
A love story that gets the single male culture down so honestly and unapologetically that it can't help but push the boundaries of political correctness. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jason Anderson
While "Wedding Crashers" ultimately succumbs to endorsing the mushy romantic clichés that it spends the rest of the time ridiculing, The 40-Year-Old Virgin offers a wiser take on the anxieties, negotiations and expectations that surround love and sex, particularly for people who've been burned before. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJessica Winter
The Virgin script occasionally resets a gold standard for refined crudery. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoanne Kaufman
The jokes fly fast and sometimes very funny. They are, more often, crude and homophobic. Still, a genuine sweetness lurks.
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Isn't quite a home run: The visually flat film leans on a pop culture crutch that probably won't age very well, and the finale – while terrifically funny – feels piped in from another, far sillier movie. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian Lowry
Crude, sophomorically homophobic but frequently funny, pic also overstays its welcome a bit and indulges in some juvenile excesses. All told, though, The 40 Year Old Virgin delivers enough belly laughs. Read full review
60
SlateDavid Edelstein
Too long, too sexist, and too--shall we say--flaccid. But it has its moments. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Sticking to one joke in an unconscionably long film makes for a very stale, witless and repetitive comedy. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Schickel
Funny in its deplorable way. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Carell and Apatow collaborated on the script; it does manage a few laughs, but the characters seldom progress beyond the two-dimensional. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Fun without ever being particularly funny, this one-joke comedy-of-bad-manners features a hero who will either tickle your funny bone or make you vaguely uncomfortable. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
A calculating crowd-pleaser aimed squarely at the under-25 crowd, who can feel free to add a star or two to my rating. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
In a textbook example of the have-it-both-ways ethos of self-loathing narcissism, Carell has succeeded in creating a character of old-fashioned decency in a movie that otherwise flouts it at every turn. Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Judd Apatow brings no cleverness or wit to his one-joke situation, and he can't give it the kernel of credibility that even a low comedy needs to sustain itself for a feature length. Read full review
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