I Love You, Man
Dude-centric comedies are slowly taking over the chick flick as the primary comic subgenre of choice in America. From every Judd Apatow-produced film to every other film starring the likes of Paul Rudd, Seth Rogan, and Vince Vaughn, the angst of being male and in a perpetual state of arrested development has really seemed to appeal to a lot of moviegoers.
“I Love You, Man”- one of the few movies not produced by Apatow this year- is one such bromantic comedy, and its’ one of the best of the genre. A lot of that comes from the dream team pairing of Rudd and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall’s” Jason Segel. The film starts proper with a proposal of marriage Rudd’s Peter makes to girlfriend Zooey (Rashida Jones). That’s also where the problems start. Turns out that while Zooey has a host of loyal girl friends (led by spunky Jamie Pressly and Sarah Burns) whom she tells every intimate detail to (“Lock that tongue down, girl”), Peter doesn’t really have any guys to fill out his side of the aisle. Sure, there’s his father (the always hilarious J.K. Simmons) and his gay brother Robbie (Andy Samberg, who steals the movie so well it’s easy to forgive him for “Hot Rod”), but he doesn’t really have any guy friends- the one guy he talks to at his real estate job is a tool trying to steal the rights to selling Lou Ferrigno’s multi-millionaire estate from under him- he can call his own.
With the wedding fast approaching, Peter goes into action, going on “bro date” after “bro date” to see if any friendly sparks fly (the funniest is with “Reno 911’s” Thomas Lennon as Doug, who reads a few things wrong). But it’s at an open house he’s hosting for the Ferrigno house (and yes, TV’s Hulk does make an appearance) where he meets Sydney (Segel). He’s less interested in the house than picking up divorcee’s, but the two hit it off immediately. Soon, the two are spending lunches together at Sydney’s bachelor pad at Venice Beach, rocking out to Rush and making a buddy bond to last the ages.
But you know things aren’t gonna be as simple as that for this match made in friendly heaven. Admittedly, I wouldn’t say the complications forced upon Peter and Sydney’s friendship by co-writers Larry Levin and John Hamburg (who also directs) are forced on the script, but the film is definitely more at home with itself in the scenes showing Peter finding his inner man child with Sydney and Zooey getting a little jealous about this side of Peter that gets unleashed around his bros. It’s certainly in contrast with Pressly and her battle-ax hubby (played by Jon Favreau), who are constantly at odds, yet show that love is a many tricky thing. But the film belongs to Rudd and Segel, who find that ever-endearing heart at the core of any macho bond. To all my guy friends, I just gotta say, “I Love You, Man.” And there’s a part of me that loves this movie too.
