Knocked Up

Knocked Up (2007) is about a woman who becomes pregnant after a one night stand and a man entirely unready to be a father. Alison has just been promoted at a television channel. Ben is unemployed, lives in a house with his friends, and is trying to build a website. They meet in a bar. Eight weeks later she calls. The idea is that neither of them likes the other; they simply share a problem and have to carry it together. The second story is Alison's sister and brother in law. Married, with children, and unhappy; the film puts them there as a warning. The Apatow comedy template settled here: long improvised scenes, crude humour, and a serious feeling underneath. Real birth footage was used in the delivery section. It was Seth Rogen's first lead. Years after release Katherine Heigl criticised the film in an interview for making the women unlikeable and the men likeable. The remark was discussed at length and she later said it had been taken out of context. It is long and some improvised scenes run past their point. It runs 129 minutes. Good for: Apatow comedy, relationship films, and the mid two thousands. Less good for: the drug and sex humour is heavy, the running time is bloated, and the writing of the women is contested.