"It's long," Leslie Mann told Collider this summer about "This Is 40." "The first cut was really long, but now he's gotten it down to I think… two [hours] and change? But it's worth it, you want it to be that long." Now it seems the "change" for Judd Apatow's latest has added up.
The writer/producer/director's latest is preparing for its first L.A. screening at the LACMA on November 1st, and the info for the picture reveals that it will run 134 minutes. That will make it his second longest film following "Funny People," and beating the 116 and 129 minute runtimes of "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up" respectively (though they both run 133 minutes on their extended DVD versions).
So is this a good or bad thing? Of course, we won't know until we actually see the movie, but the argument could be made that as Apatow's films have baggier with longer running times. 'Virgin' manages to sustain the length (let's face, who watches the theatrical cut of that one?) because it's consistently hilarious, but that isn't necessarily true for the dramedy of "Knocked Up" which does sag in either iteration. And the same certainly goes for the sprawling, but not necessarily focused "Funny People."
As we noted in our discussion recently about the movie, it will either see Apatow (hopefully) using his familiar brand and style to tell his most personal story yet (a direction he has been heading toward over the course of his films) or more of the familiar, loose and improv heavy antics with a dollop of drama to keep it grounded. The December release date might be most telling of what kind of movie to expect. But undoubtedly, as the past has shown, while we'll be getting 134 minutes at the theater, there will be even more by time it hits home video.
"This Is 40" opens on December 21st.
