Knocked Up (2007)

For being a comedy from the writer/director of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, one of the funniest films of recent years, this is a remarkably good drama, and a damn fine comedy too. To be fair, it's not hard to be dramatic in a film about accidental pregnancy, but putting together such a heartfelt, believable, and quirky romance alongside such gloriously foul humor takes some serious know-how. The blame for such sterling results rests with its exceptional cast, including Seth Rogan and Paul Rudd. But it's really Katherine Heigl's film, and every bit of her in this film is a brilliant bit of radiance. While Rogan and Rudd (and a good number of others) provide the laughs, Heigl provides the emotional heart with a frank and sometimes embarrassing honesty unusual in a genre that thrives on dick-and-fart jokes. Actually—and it's almost a flaw—the film works better as a drama than it does as a comedy. While the laughs are hearty, the emotional evolution and journey is the more interesting and developed side of the film. It can cause a problem of expectation clashing with reality throughout its entire length, but the serious business of childbirth is given enough of a smile to make it a complete package. It's a foulmouthed wheelbarrow full of cleverly low-brow humor, with an honest love story at its core.

9 out of 10.