The 40 Year-Old Virgin

This film came out in 2005, but I only watched it recently — and I think the timing was just right. It’s a good thing I didn’t see it as a teenager, because I probably wouldn’t have noticed what I noticed now: the film quietly touches on the sex- and androcentricity of our society, where it’s simply impossible to treat women with genuine respect.

The friends who try to “teach” and “help” the main character are all, in their own way, pretty unpleasant: one simultaneously loves and hates his ex and speaks about her unkindly; another cheats on his wife; and a third treats women purely as a means to satisfy his sexual needs. All of them use misogynistic language in one way or another.

The main character believes in love and romance — but struggles with communication because being a virgin in the modern world is considered shameful, and people (mostly men) ridicule anyone who lacks sexual experience.

One thing I didn’t enjoy was the length — almost two hours, when the theme could have been explored much more dynamically. It gets tiresome watching the main character’s friends try to fill his head with incel nonsense.

The scene at the sexual health centre, where the main character brings his girlfriend’s daughter to learn about sex, was a highlight — though it’s a shame they didn’t make it more informative.