MovieChat Forums > Knocked Up (2007) Discussion > Why this film doesn't work

Why this film doesn't work

posted 9 years ago by E-m-p-e-r-o-r
25 replies | jump to latest

The problem with this film is the overall premise: we're to believe that Katherine Heigl would be remotely interested in Seth Rogan. It just doesn't work.

I'm not just talking about looks either. It goes beyond that. This film doesn't establish a believable rapport between them from the beginning; one where we can understand why this chick, who can get almost any man she wants, would go for somebody as boring, lame, unkempt, unaccomplished like Rogan. He bought her a couple of beers. And now suddenly she decides she wants to spend the evening alone (!!!) with him? Nope. This type of BS just doesn't work, and it damages the film, because it lingers on throughout the entire running time.

If the premise doesn't seem plausible, everything that comes after it is worthless. I'm not stating that it's impossible that Heigl would go for Rogan. What I am stating is that this film failed to establish any reason(s) for her to. And that's ultimately why this doesn't work.

Of course gorgeous women date average looking to ugly men all the time. And of course these men aren't millionaires a lot of the time. But they all have something attractive about them to the woman in question: charisma, humor, intelligence, creativity, etc.

Rogan doesn't have any of this throughout the entire film. We don't see any of this. It can be argued that he is sortof charming, maybe sortof charismatic. Maybe. Sometimes.

But this is just not enough to connect with the audience and remove it from their minds.

I personally know beautiful women who have been attracted to relatively ugly men. But these men all had something interesting/intriguing about them that was attractive.

In this film, Rogan is just some goofy nobody -- especially at the all-important beginning, where the idea is to attract this beautiful woman into your world in the first place.

It started off okay, with him buying her the 2 beers. But it went downhill from there. The people writing films like this just don't understand women. I don't know any woman who's watched this film and found it believe that Heigl would spend the night with Rogan.

And most guys probably don't find it believable either.

[–] Blubonnet_Spearman 8 years ago

That's bs. I've seen many couples where a hot chick is with a much less attractive guy

[–] indialm 8 years ago

I agree with your post. I think if perhaps they had cast someone not quite as attractive as Heigl, who is stunning, it may have been easier to believe. Although Rogan does have more endearing qualities as the film progresses, the initial contact between them seems highly unlikely, even if drunk and even if neither had much social contact.

[–] Nick Zbu 8 years ago

I don't think it's a matter of leagues, it's a matter of sense. For a movie that boasts about making the lead characters grow up, it assumes that having a kid will be the thing that makes them face responsibility and adulthood. But adulthood is more about making decisions that are best for yourself and for the situation first, and neither of the lead characters do that at all.

What woman with a solid career would have a kid with someone she knows is essentially destitute? What freewheeling guy who wants to get high and enjoy life as such really would want to have and raise a kid with someone who calls up sobbing about how she wants to keep it in such a dramatic fashion? The idea of adulthood that this movie pushes is hollow and assumes that people who have kids are grown up, and that is simply not the case. Emotional maturity is something that one learns over time. The only thing this movie shows is that the relationship born of this will eventually crumble faster than the sister's one will and with a lot more blowback because it's only about the kid. For those who say that the movie shows a realistic version of how things never work out like a movie, there is some truth to that. But that doesn't mean that two people who have known each other for less than a year are guaranteed to have a fruitful relationship considering the only thing they have in common is their kid and both are seeming to give up a lot in exchange for that.

In short, it's a strange movie that boasts about adulthood yet defines it incorrectly as being able to reproduce and raise young instead of making solid decisions that help them grow into it. And in a way, that's quite insulting: it's a very reductive way of seeing adulthood as something forced upon people who have chosen a path and making them conform. Like it or not, the two lead characters in the movie have made choices in life and are dealing with them, even if they're not typical ones. By all rights, they are adults. But the need to add a child in there to claim the ownership of the term 'adult' just rings hollow and very establishmentary and, dare I say it, conservative.

[–] tom8 (3119) 7 years ago

agree, rogen looks like SHIT in this movie.... a girl like her would not fuck him

[–] DracTarashV2 (4493) 7 years ago

The movie made this mind-blowing premise work. And it wasn’t hard to fathom.