In Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up, Pete and Debbie (Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann) were the supposedly mature uncle and aunt of the new baby. Now, in Judd Apatow’s “sort of” sequel to that film, they are the central characters.

They have two daughters (Iris Apatow and Maud Apatow) and a help o’ troubles. Pete’s record label is hemorrhaging money and someone is stealing from Debbie’s trendy clothing store. Pete’s father (Albert Brooks) is always borrowing money from his son and Debbie’s father (John Lithgow) has reentered her life after a long time away.

Now, they’re turning 40. Pete is excited about that but Debbie insists she’s 38. That excitement and joy of life — even with all its stresses — is evident in Paul Rudd’s performance. Leslie Mann, meanwhile, is as annoying as her character in what is for her an uncharacteristically shrill performance.

He is trying to hold it all together, bicycling relentlessly to, one imagines, get out of the house. She is insecure and seems to feel poor. That last is pretty difficult to imagine when one looks at their beautiful home filled with beautiful things.

There are some funny lines in the film, the the two daughters who seem to converse only in four-letter words are grating. Lithgow wanders into the film like he’s lost and, in the end, makes almost no impression. Brooks is fine, funny and rueful — a welcome presence.

In the end if, indeed, This Is Forty, that is a time in life through which we’d all be well advised to sleep through. It’s not worth waking up for 40. After all the hype, one expects more. And as this was written and directed by Judd Apatow who, among other titles gave us The 40 Year-Old Virgin and the aforementioned Knocked Up, we are entitled to expect more.