Andrew McMurtryREVIEW: I Love You, Man (2009)
January 1st 2010 12:51
“I Love You, Man” is a great new idea for a film. While the romantic comedy genre has been used almost to death over the past few years, the idea to do a bromantic comedy is a nice change. The sub-trends of men nowadays, like metrosexuals, manscapers and all the other touchy feely man trends, and Apatow type comedies of the past few years have paved the way for this type of film to be made. And thank god. It’s fresh and funny and made like to look and sound like real life. It’s nice to not have too cerebral a script especially for this type of movie. And with a solid cast of funny and clever people, the film is a great example of how to show a bromance.
The main character is real estate agent Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd). He just proposed to his girlfriend Zooey (Rashida Jones), who said yes. They begin to plan there wedding but Zooey tells her friends, without knowing Pete is in the other room, that she is worried that he doesn’t have any guy friends and therefore no best man. What follows is a series of man dates with a bunch of loser guys and one gay guy who mistakes Pete for someone who’s interested. It’s not until Pete meets a man named Sydney Fife (Jason Segel) at a Lou Ferrigno’s house, the house Peter is trying to sell, they begin a bromance. Pete’s character is completely nervous and doesn’t know how to talk to other men. He is a girl friend man. On the other hand Sydney is a mans man. He’s only in the house to take the free food and hit on recent divorcees. So comfortable in his masculinity, he walks the streets with his tiny dog in ugg boots and shorts. It’s the look of a man who doesn’t give a shit what most people think of him. He has a man cave in his house, which is probably my favourite idea for a bachelor’s room that I’ve ever heard. The movie does end up predictably like all other rom-com’s with the break up and get back together in the end but it seems so absurd that two heterosexual men are in the relationship.
Of the actors, the Paul Rudd and Rashida Jones do a good job of an engaged couple. Sarah Burns (Hailey) and Jamie Pressly (Denise) also do well as the girlfriends of Zooey. Then people like Andy Samberg, playing Robbie (Pete’s gay brother), J.K Simmons (Pete’s dad Oswald), Jane Curtin (Pete’s mum Joyce) and Jon Favreau, playing Denise’s jerk husband also give good support to the main characters. But this movie wouldn’t have been half as good without Jason Segel as Sydney. He is by far the best character in the film and seems like he is playing himself. It’s a similar role to the role he plays as Marshall Eriksen in How I Met Your Mother. And without him it would have been a rather boring movie. Paul Rudd’s characters nervousness makes him a heavily repeated character in today’s film. He really does make it much more interesting. Whoever cast him should be praised. It was a masterstroke putting Segel in because he is such an everyday character.
While the film shares some Apatow vibe, he isn’t even involved in the film in any capacity. Writer Larry Levin and director John Hamburg successfully capture the Apatow vibe though. It seems like a truer to life movie than most of the others going around and that’s what most people watch movies for. They watch it to escape reality but if it’s too unrealistic, it’s too hard to relate to. It clearly won’t go down as one of the great movies but it’s a nice way to spend a couple of hours. They don’t do too much in terms of dynamic camera angles or anything but it moves along at a nice pace after Pete discovers Sydney. And it’s rather predictable, which takes a little away from the story. In the end though, these aren’t the things you are watching. You are mostly watching a nice story about two guys becoming true soul bros.
It’s a very interesting idea for a movie as I said from in the beginning. I like both Jason Segel and Paul Rudd. They seem to be part of Judd Apatow’s rat pack along with Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Leslie Mann along with others. It appears to be a solid and lucrative group to be part of. And Paul Rudd plays the charming nice guy better than most others. With Jason Segel as the manly man, Paul Rudd basically plays the girl part of the relationship in the movie. It’s a good role for him. In “Knocked Up” he plays the soft but charming guy, which he seems most comfortable as. But he does it well. And it’s probably why it works. I’d give it 3 out of 5. It’s good enough but it still seems like a rom-com which has been done thousands of times. But it’s funny as hell watching Jason Segel get beat up by Lou Ferrigno.
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