Not so much an age thing...

...as a maturity, development-of-personality thing.

And she's the one with the maturity, not him.

He had wishy-washy down pat...in much the same way that he did in his first movie...and 'How I Met Your Mother'.

In small bites, he's charming. But over the course of a movie? I wanted to punch him because of his tendencies. (And why I was never a dedicated viewer of the show.)

Whereas she was much more aware than he was. She had a rock-solid foundation, whereas his was made of sand.

I found it hilarious that this essentially dysfunctional thirtysomething guy was giving the advice he was.

If the writer/director/actor wanted to play out what he clearly had the best of intentions of doing, he should have backed off on her character, making her less mature, more ditzy, and him more solid, more worldly. THEN his refusal to de-flower her would have made sense.

This was truly an 'indie' movie, where character & situation is more important than story.

BTW: For the record, had I been in that situation, if it were me and not the dweeb in the film, I'd definitely have taken her to bed. (In the hotel, not in her room.) What Mr. Beige believed to be the risks were valid for him...but not to wise, compassionate, functional 35 year old men...for example, me at that age. But he wasn't up to the task...just as he wasn't up to Life, really. She deserved to lose her virginity to someone with experience and the insight to make her initiation a wonderful one...rather than by some uni dork after she'd gotten drunk. (Which is definitely what you can infer by her actions at the party she ends up going to.)