The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)

Most people think so. 81% of audiences gave it a thumbs up, by Google's archived audience score. Critics agree, scoring it 79%.

Andy Stitzer has a pleasant life with a nice apartment and a job stamping invoices at an electronics store. But at age 40, there's one thing Andy hasn't done, and it's really bothering his sex-obsessed male co-workers: Andy is still a virgin. Determined to help Andy get laid, the guys make it their mission to de-virginize him. But it all seems hopeless until Andy meets small business owner Trish, a single mom. Wikipedia ↗

The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a 2005 American romantic comedy directed by Judd Apatow in his feature directorial debut, the film that launched the Apatow comedy empire. Steve Carell stars as Andy Stitzer, a gentle, collector-obsessed electronics store employee whose colleagues discover he is a virgin at 40 and make it their mission to help him lose his virginity. Their increasingly misguided advice and Andy's own awkwardness create chaos, but the real story is his genuinely sweet romance with Trish, a grandmother played by Catherine Keener, to whom Andy is too embarrassed to reveal his inexperience.

Judd Apatow's directorial approach — long improvisational takes, vulgar comedy grounded in recognizable human behavior, and a surprisingly sincere emotional core beneath the raunchy exterior — established the template for a decade of American comedy. Steve Carell's performance was a revelation, transforming a premise that could have been mean-spirited into something genuinely loveable. The chest-waxing scene, filmed with real hot wax on Carell's actual chest hair, produced genuinely authentic screams of pain.

The film earned $177 million worldwide on a $26 million budget.