I Love You, Man (2009)
Director: John Hamburg
Writer: John Hamburg, Larry Levin
Starring: Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, J.K. Simmons, Jon Favreau, Jaime Pressly, Andy Samberg
Language: English
Runtime: 105 Minutes approx.
Age Rating: 15
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Reviewed by Ross Miller
Paul Rudd is an underrated comedic performer too often brushed aside into supporting performances just because he's not as big a name as the likes of Steve Carell and Seth Rogen. But when he's given the chance, as he was in the recent Role Models and now this, he shows he's not only capable at handling a leading role but also that he can do it better than a lot of bigger names. Rudd, a genuinely funny script, and some great supporting performances make I Love You, Man stand head and shoulders above some of the stuff which passes for mainstream comedy these days.
Rudd plays Peter Klaven, an open, honest, and hard-working estate agent about to enter into married life with his fiancée Zooey (a sweet and charming Rashida Jones). The only trouble is he's short of a best man, and after an embarrassing celebratory dinner with his parents and gay brother, he realises he's never had any real guy friends. So Peter sets out to make some male friends, and after a series of unsuccessful attempts he unintentionally stumbles across Sydney (Jason Segel), a carefree, charming guy with whom Peter immediately strikes up a strong friendship.
I Love You, Man joins the plethora of buddy pictures out there we've become comfortably accustomed to. The premise is nothing original, and one can argue that is a reason to ignore it right there. But once given a chance, you'll find that even though it may bask in an unoriginal storyline, that's the whole point of it. This isn't out to reinvent the knock knock joke, but rather to examine and explore the issues and themes these buddy pictures almost always include. It reaffirms the idea of male friendship, the fact that in a world where homosexuality is (hopefully, anyway) widely accepted, that there is still such a thing as a guy-guy friendship that is purely about hanging out and being guys, without any other connotations being unjustly thrown in the mix (although most of these types of movies, this one included, poke fun at that).
The movie does what all good comedies do -- it plays to a niche audience while still broadly appealing to the masses. It's the pleasant nature, the likable characters (and actors who portray them) and moments of broad humour that everyone can relate to in one way or another that achieves the latter. I mean, who doesn't find funny, on a basic comedic level, a man refusing to clean up his dog's mess and screaming like a maniac at anyone who complains about his lack of public manners? And for those who like their comedy a bit more laden with pop culture references, I Love You, Man has you covered, too.
Rudd and Segel, the latter a relatively new face to the comedy movies of today, have such a great dynamic together, somehow managing to be as likable as is humanly possibly while discussing, for example, their sexual habits. It is essential in any buddy picture that the buddies in question have good chemistry, and luckily these two have been cast well in their roles.
Segel was last seen in last year's Forgetting Sarah Marshall in which, strikingly similar to Rudd's situation here, he was given centre stage after a few movies of standing on the sidelines. He was sweet and ultra-likable in that movie, and he carries that over into I Love You, Man. All good comedy actors are likable even when they're being crude and disgusting, which he gets many chances to be here, and he has now proven himself more than capable of being funny amongst the funniest. His character, Sydney, is the type of guy all other guys would want to have at the other end of the phone -- confident, charming, welcoming, knowledgeable in the same areas as you, and just plainly a nice guy. We all shine to those, right?
Rudd's more old-fashioned, un-savvy Peter certainly does, without a hitch or a question when he first meets him at an open house, which as a sort of extra bonus belongs to the Hulk himself, Lou Ferrigno (who appears several times in a hilarious extended cameo). Sydney is everything Peter wants himself to be, or at least wants be with, and he immediately digs his buddy claws in, spending as much time as he can with him (perhaps because he has a "man cave" full of TVs, musical instruments and retro movie posters), much to the dismay of his new fiancée.
I Love You, Man follows a fairly generic storyline, which is what ultimately holds it back from becoming part of the classic comedy catalogue, of ups and downs, fall-outs and fall-ins, and a general sense that everything is going to be all right in the end. I think it's safe to say, with such a widely appealing and bluntly titled film, that it does exactly that.
Most of I Love You, Man feels more like a collection of strung together skits of failed "man-dates", one of which predictably but nonetheless hilariously ends sourly because the other guy wants more than just friendship, gay jokes involving Peter's brother, uncomfortable family scenes involving his father (a brilliant-as-usual J.K. Simmons), and general tomfoolery of guys just being guys. It seems like a story prime for comedy man-of-the-minute Judd Apatow to put his touch to, but surprisingly he's nowhere to be seen here. This is writer/director John Hamburg's (Along Came Polly) baby, a vehicle which shows he has a flair for creating genuinely funny scenarios that should suffice for indefinite rewatches on DVD. But let's face it, Hamburg ain't Apatow; he doesn't quite have the experience, or maybe even the skill, yet to make a comedy about more than just laugh-out-loud jokes chained together. Apatow makes real movies about real people who just happen to have some extra funny bones in their bodies, whereas Hamburg has proven, with this and Along Came Polly before, that when it comes to more than pure laughs, he's not quite sure what to do with the screen-time.
Nothing about I Love You, Man is ever a tough watch; there's nothing challenging or genre-busting about what's being done here. But what it is is damn funny, and isn't that what all comedies should be? Those accustomed to the buddy picture and all the facets that go with it will have an extra appreciation for the movie; it never tries to be anything more than that sub-genre of comedy suggests, but rather takes what we know and explores it to perhaps greater depths than has been seen before.
Men will relate infinitely more than women to it as, let's face facts, women have a different dynamic with their friends than us guys do -- they can tell their friends their deepest secrets without batting an eye, but men can't. Not unless they find that right guy to whom they can utter the words, with no unnecessary connotations to be taken, I love you... man.
