It was supposed to turn romantic comedies on their ear — for the first time, the “bromance” took center stage. The standard formula — boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back — is approached from a unique point-of-view in director and writer John Hamburg’s (Zoolander, Meet the Parents) newest comedy. I Love You, Man is a heartfelt stab at the complicated maze of the male best friendship that almost lives up to its hype.
Paul Rudd is Peter Klaven, a guy so far submerged in the boyfriend role that he’s forgotten how to build male friendships. Upon proposing to his girlfriend Zooey — played by Rashida Jones — Peter realizes that he has no close male friends to call, let alone be the best man at his wedding. A series of awkward and misinterpreted man-dates ensues until Sydney Fife (Jason Segel) crashes Peter’s open house and the two hit it off, instantaneously becoming BFFs.
The whole cast is blessed with fairly strong comedic chops, but it’s the up-and-comers that steal the show in I Love You, Man. Jaime Pressley as one of Zooey’s best friends Denise is hilariously foul-mouthed and domineering. Also bringing home the laughs is Andy Samberg as Peter’s brother Robbie, a heterosexual-seducing gay man whose world is more masculine than his straight brother.
When the central theme of a film is the importance male camaraderie, the two male leads are crucial. Rudd and Segel both deliver funny performances, but that star quality that can carry an otherwise mediocre movie to top box office status is under-developed in both their roles. Rudd’s Peter gets the easy laughs — he’s a bumbling, fumbling, usually flustered, somewhat effeminate real estate agent. For the guy that supposedly went from girlfriend to girlfriend his whole life, however, he seems way more likely to have gotten stuck in the “friend zone” again and again. On the other hand, Segel’s off-beat sense of humor is more realized and perfected in Sydney, yet the film seems to shy away from letting him get too much spotlight — an odd choice, considering Segel delivers the most memorable lines in a misguided, double-entendric engagement dinner toast.
The style I Love You, Man is going for is blatant. This generation’s king of comedy Judd Apatow is both responsible for the most unique and pleasing comedies of recent years and all the others that fall hopelessly short of the pack. Ever since that first group of little old ladies angrily marched out of the theatre mid-way during The 40 Year Old Virgin, the R-rated raunchy comedy was back on top. Apatow is a master of it and his carefully selected casts always deliver performances that are poignant, yet remarkably funny. Hamburg’s I Love You, Man earnestly tries for such a result, but doesn’t quite make the grade. The jokes often don’t reach their full potential — we wait for the real kicker, but it never comes. I Love You, Man, however, does hit its mark enough times to be worthwhile.
So, I Love You, Man didn’t fully live up to its sizeable buzz. Nonetheless, the fresh story idea and notable cast members give the film an edge that most hyped comedies never achieve. Even when Rudd and Segel aren’t goofing off on the top of their game, both have more than enough know-how to leave the audience feeling mostly satisfied.
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