Starring: Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Jane Lynch
Cert: 15

Andy Stitzer (Carell) spends his life by himself. He lives on his own, rides a bike to work because he never learned to drive, whilst there he keeps his head down and isn't troubled by any of his colleagues to the extent that they actually avoid him.

But desperate times call for desperate measures so his work associates ask him to make up the numbers for a poker game. It is during the run of usual testosterone laden chat that it comes to pass that Andy has never had sex. At least that explains why he is so odd and so his new found friends take it upon themselves to rid him of his terrible curse.

Unfortunately for Andy, each friend has his own slant on the subjects of sex, relationships and women. There's David (Rudd) the dumpee who has turned into an obsessed stalker; Jay (Romany Malco) who is a serial adulterer and misogynist; and Cal (Seth Rogan) who is a romance nut and sex freak rolled into one.  Crossed signals and conflicting advice confuse and put him off even more than before.

However, through the fog of interference from all those around him comes a couple of genuine opportunities for romance. But will Andy's naïvety and inexperience be his downfall or will his genuine nature win through and show his lotharious friends the error of their ways?

Steve Carell, thus far, has been seen in incredibly funny supporting roles, most notably playing Evan Baxter against Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty and Brick Tamland with Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy so this is his first lead role. Does he have the comedic stamina to keep an audience engaged for the two hour running time?

The premise reads pretty much like the bizarre plots Ferrell uses and features Anchorman buddy Paul Rudd but, surprisingly to me, The 40 Year Old Virgin's plot is steeped more in reality than Ferrell's efforts with Carell and company not being quite so off-the-wall. Yes there are moments of ridiculousness as Andy is thrust into estrogen levels well beyond his depth. Sage words that apparently work for the individual offering them quickly turn into one 'hilarious consequence' after another for Andy but each demeaning encounter and near miss just makes him more determined to succeed.

Each set piece is neatly executed with plenty of variety in each set up and target female to keep each scene fresh. Most of the time it is seeing how low Carell's meek and mild-mannered Andy will stoop to get his end away and the back of friendly advice but, of course, the result is nearly always another kick in the teeth. The rest of the time is composed of the filmmakers seeing how much they can get away with. At times it's like live Southpark with a constant tirade of verbal profanity mixed with what must be the highest density of sexual euphemisms recorded on celluloid.

Carell puts on a brave face and acquiesces in the hope of coming out the other end in one piece and we root for him because he is a believable, and credible, leading character who gets the happy ending he deserves. My only complaint is that after all the 'real' postulation the filmmakers then regressed into Ferrell's zany domain with a completely unnecessary and ill-fitting … er … climax.

Amongst the special features are commentaries from the filmmakers, which come over as giggly college boys laughing at their own knob gags and don't offer much in the way of the filming processes. But on the bright side there are a plethora of deleted and extended scenes making it a DVD release worth owning. It becomes obvious that the ad-libbing talents of all the actors within the film had been tested as degradative conversations are continued beyond the scenes seen in the film and alternative lines of abuse reiterated over and over. It really is quite puerile but ultimately very funny.

Possibly the best extra is the 'behind the scenes' featurette of the live body waxing. It is testament to the lengths a true professional will go to for an authentic scene and the absolute comedy moment. Well, either that or Carell is really stupid.