This Is 40

Judd Apatow strays too far into sentimentality in This is 40, a comedy about entering your forties married with two kids. Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann, Apatow’s wife—characters from Apatow’s last feature, Knocked Up—are hitting a midlife crisis, questioning their relationship, stressing over their kids, Sadie and Charlotte (Maude and Iris Apatow) and their respective careers and parents. The dynamic between Mann and her daughters possibly the best thing about the movie; you can’t fake the irritation the two girls spark in each other or their dynamic with their mom. This movie starts strong, with plenty of quick wit and jokes at everyone’s expense. It falters about half way through, when things start to get too earnest—when family drama stops being a thing to make light of, and starts being something to resolve in some unrealistic schmaltzy way. -Molly Segal