ShareThisI sort of like you, man.
Squandering its potential to become something special, the inconsistent guy-on-guy romantic comedy "I Love You, Man" cranks out just enough laughs to keep you from squirming in your seat.
Paul Rudd plays Peter, a newly engaged Los Angeles real-estate agent who's never really noticed he doesn't have any male friends. Forced to find groomsmen to fill out the wedding party, he casts his line in the water and goes out on a series of "man-dates."
Director John Hamburg, who wrote the script with Larry Levin, takes the usual movie-romance tropes and twists some of them inside out. As Paul hunts for "bromance," he bungles his words, misinterprets signals and makes a general fool of himself. Think Ben Stiller in "There's Something About Mary," only with Mary as a dude.
The premise is fascinating, rarely touched on in film and ripe for hilarious exploration. Our society is constructed in such a way that many married men seem unable to evolve past the core of friends from high school and college. As wives and kids enter the fray, one by one, old friendships fall to the wayside, replaced by casual acquaintances.
Peter is immune to the friend-atrophy syndrome because since he always related more to women he never had any guy friends to begin with. But the phenomenon bedevils Sydney (Jason Segel), who meets Peter at an open house and quickly becomes his friend.
The last remaining lone wolf amid his pals, Sydney is always setting up guys' outings that his married friends back out of at the last minute. The eager-to-please Peter ditches work and his increasingly miffed bride-to-be, Zooey (Rashida Jones) whenever needy Sydney calls. The guys are using each other under false pretenses, setting up a big fight to be followed by a late-film reunion.
Hmm. Where have we seen that before? Too often the movie sticks to a bland formula rather than riffing on it.
Rudd's Everyman charm jibes well with Segel's animalistic nature. Many of the funnier scenes involve Sydney teaching Peter about all the guy stuff he's missed out on, including impromptu jam sessions, primal screams and sex talk.
Equally amusing are Jaime Pressly and Jon Favreau as Denise and Barry, a bickering couple who are close friends with Zooey. With the bitingly authentic way they subtly tear each other apart as discreetly as possible in front of friends, you'd swear Pressly and Favreau were really hitched.
A bizarre side plot involving Lou Ferrigno as Peter's demanding client adds little, and there are as many groaners as there are solid, insightful jokes.
It's best to treat the film like an old pal, enjoying the good times and forgiving the faults. Just hang out and enjoy the company.
3 stars out of 4
Rated: R for pervasive language, including crude and sexual references.
Family call: Too crude for children.
Running time: 105 minutes.
(Pvillarreal(at)azstarnet.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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