Pete spends hours in the bathroom trying to get away not only from Debbie but from their two girls, Sadie and Charlotte (they’re played, respectively, by Apatow’s daughters Maude and Iris). Debbie’s floundering attempts to foster family togetherness by restricting Sadie’s obsessive use of electronic gadgets are met with howls of protest from the teen.
Not surprisingly, Pete and Debbie’s troubles extend to the bedroom. Their conflicts in that quarter are treated with excessive explicitness, beginning with the opening scene.
A more unusual moral concern arises from Pete and Debbie’s interaction with the mother of one of Sadie’s schoolmates. They behave abusively toward her and her son, and then lie about it when called to a conference in the principal’s office. Though this is all played for laughs, their successful deceit leaves them with a common sense of victory that temporarily repairs their frayed ties.
In keeping with the pro-life sentiment underlying “Knocked Up,” a subplot involving an unexpected pregnancy laudably excises the option of abortion. It’s at least implicitly made clear that such a choice is not even considered by the characters involved.
But, as in the earlier movie, this positive, if unspoken, message is a brief glint of gold amid a mire of degraded views, obscene language and crass humor.
The film contains strong sexual content, including graphic scenes of marital lovemaking and of aberrant sexual activity, upper female and obscured rear nudity, drug use, about a dozen instances of profanity, relentless rough and crude language, some scatological humor and a couple of obscene gestures. The Catholic News Service classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.
