RSS
Home
I Love You, Man: Bromance at its funniest
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
I Love You, Man
Rating: ****1/2 (out of 5)
Get ready for the latest movie catchphrase: The Bromance. It's cine-slang for a romantic comedy (or rom-com, in movie catchphrase lingo), but instead of boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-wins-girl-back, it's more like dude-meets-dude, dudes-drink-beer-and-make-fart-jokes, dudes-argue, dudes-make-up. And it's all purely platonic, of course.
We've had a slew of bromance movies lately - and most of them have come from the Judd Apatow comedy blockbuster factory - think Pineapple Express, Step Brothers, Superbad and Talladega Nights. Now comes I Love You, Man, which despite all appearances, is not an Apatow production. It's got his fingerprints all over it, though, from the two Apatow Repertory Members who play the leads (Paul Rudd and Jason Segel), to the delicate volley between gross-out and sentimental slapstick to the syrupy ending that goes for the laugh and the lump in the throat at the same time.
Here's the good news: It's really, really funny. In fact, "I Love You, Man" could become the "When Harry Met Sally" of the bromance genre - the movie we all look back on in the years to come and point to as the one that got it exactly right.
Rudd plays Peter, a nice guy who's in real estate and who just got engaged to fiance Zooey (Rashida Jones). While Zooey assembles a small army of bridesmaids, Peter realizes that he has no close male friends. He's always been a "girlfriend guy" who let his guy friends drift away, his brother (Andy Samberg) explains to Zooey. So Peter sets off to make some guy friends in the hopes that one of them might become his best man. Kind of pathetic, yes, but Rudd - always so reliably funny as a second fiddle - manages to take the lead role and turn Peter into a guy you can root for, even as he endures one cringe-inducing moment after another as he sets out to find Mr. Right.
One subplot has Peter plotting to sell of Lou Ferigno's Hollywood hills home - the former Incredible Hulk has some very funny scenes - and at an open house for the sale, he meets Sydney (Segel), a mess of a thirtysomething who openly admits he's not there for the house but for the free food and the possibility of meeting wealthy divorced women. Oh, and the roasted red pepper paninis are a nice touch, he tells Peter, after making the obligatory fart joke. Now that's a dude. Sparks fly.
The movie goes where you think it will from there: Peter and Sydney become BFFs, hanging out in Sydney's "Man Cave," which sounds completely ridiculous and inappropriate out of context, but fits perfectly into the storyline within this movie. Lots of guys have a media room, but Sydney has taken this to an entirely new level. His "Man Cave" is in a garage, separate from his house, and it's filled with TVs, old albums, video games, guitars and a drum set. It's essentially a playroom for a 30-year-old male, and when Sydney shows it to Peter, it opens up a whole new world for him.
Rudd and Segel have great chemistry as the new best friends, and Segel makes Sydney as absurdly content-with-himself and outspoken as Peter is skittish and reserved. The story is old - Peter and Sydney are just Felix and Oscar updated to the new millenium - but the actors make it feel somehow new.
Things get dicey and the dudes "break up" - this is a bromance, after all - and the movie tails off a bit as it winds itself down, but it's still as funny as any studio comedy released in recent months. Jones, in particular, is given very little to do as Peter's fiance. Girls, who needs 'em. Not a bromance, that's for sure. But the movie's appeal should bridge the sexes. This is a comedy that should be very popular with the "date night" crowd, and deservedly so - with winning performances and a sweet story that mines old comic territory in a new and funny way, there's a lot to love about "I Love You, Man."
Here's the I Love You, Man trailer:
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
