Dir. John Hamburg, US, 2009, 105 mins
Cast: Paul Rudd, Rashida Jones, Jason Segel
Review by Carol Allen
There's a new sub genre of romantic comedy, which has emerged in the past few years, known as “bromance” — “love stories” between man and man, usually gross out, which are not ostensibly gay but are about male friendship and bonding. But as I tend to avoid movies starring Seth Rogen (apart from Knocked Up, which also featured Rudd), I'm no expert on the trend.
I Love You Man is the latest. Peter (Rudd) is an estate agent — one of his clients is former Incredible Hulk Lou Ferrigno, playing himself in an amusing cameo. When Peter proposes to his girlfriend Zooey (Jones), he realises that he has no close male mate, whom he can ask to be his best man. So on the advice of his much more self confident and worldly gay younger brother Robbie (Andy Samberg), Peter embarks on a series of “man-dates”, — just lunch or drinks, advises Robbie, no dinner or movies. These involve him in a disastrous beer-sodden, butch poker evening, where as a usually moderate drinker, he climaxes the evening by throwing up over his host and a tricky evening with a gay man (Thomas Lennon), who's under the impression this is a “real” date — Peter should have taken Robbie's advice about no dinner. Then finally he finds “the one”, when Sydney (Segel), gatecrashes an open house event Peter has mounted in an effort to sell an expensive piece of real estate and they click big time, to the extent that Zooey soon starts to feel threatened by her fiancé's new best friend.
The premise of the film, that you have to slob up a bit and be one of the boys to be a real man, is a bit suspect. Robbie's explanation for Peter's lack of male friends is that his brother's always put all his effort into his relationships with his girlfriends — so what's wrong with that then? But the film itself is pleasantly amusing. Sydney's actually a bit of a sad character, whose friends have all grown up and started their own families, leaving him alone in his “man cave” (for which read nursery) playing with his toys — guitars, drum kit, television and porn — and looking for a new playmate. And while Peter's presented as a bit of a wuss, Rudd is a genuinely charming and very cute guy, who carries us along with the premise of the film and the character. Jones does her best with the somewhat sidelined role of the Peter's fiancée, who, in contrast to her partner, shares every explicit detail of her relationship with her gang of best girlfriends. There are some good jokes and just a touch of gross out humour, which is kept well under control. And though the ending is predictably sentimental, it's still funny enough not to make you reach for the sick bag.
The film though wouldn't work nearly as well without Rudd in the lead. Best known for playing Phoebe's boyfriend in television's Friends and for his role in Clueless he proves here he can effectively carry a light comedy lead.
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