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I Love You, Man Our rating: Your rating:   Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: R (for pervasive language, including crude and sexual references) Genre: Comedy Theater release: March 20, 2009 by DreamWorks/Paramount Directed by: John Hamburg Runtime: 1 hour 44 minutes Cast: Paul Rudd (Peter Klaven), Jason Segel (Sydney Fife), Rashida Jones (Zooey), Jaime Pressly (Denise), Sarah Burns (Hailey), Andy Samberg (Robbie Klaven), Jon Favreau (Barry), J.K. Simmons (Oswald Klaven), Jane Curtin (Joyce Klaven) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Two years ago, Justin Shubow wrote a fascinating and insightful article for National Review on the emerging trend of "bromantic" comedies, i.e., male buddy movies that follow the narrative template of a romantic comedy, even to the point of including scenes in which the two men declare their platonic love for one another, perhaps by saying something like "I love you, man." Looking at Wedding Crashers, Superbad and other films in this mini-genre, Shubow said the one thing they all lacked was the "meet cute," the scene in which the two buddies meet for the very first time. But now, at last, we have a film that follows the template from start to finish—and it is called, fittingly, I Love You, Man.

The film stars Paul Rudd as Peter Klaven, a man who, when we first meet him, has plenty of female friends, most of them casual, but no real male friends. This doesn't bother him at first—indeed, it seems he has never really even thought about it—but after he gets engaged to his girlfriend Zooey (Rashida Jones), he realizes that, whereas she has several friends to choose from for her half of the wedding party, he has pretty much none. And so, with some encouragement from his gay brother Robbie (Andy Samberg), Peter goes on a series of "man-dates," hoping to meet someone who can be best man at his wedding.

Jason Segel as Sydney, Paul Rudd as Peter

Things don't work out so well at first, and Peter is tempted to forget the whole thing, but then, one day, he meets a guy who could very well turn out to be the "right man." Peter, a real estate agent whose latest client is Lou "The Incredible Hulk" Ferrigno, holds an open house for one of Ferrigno's homes, and there he meets Sydney Fife (Jason Segel), a friendly, casual, easygoing guy whose ability to read the body language of total strangers could rival that of Sherlock Holmes. Peter and Sydney exchange business cards, and the next thing Peter knows, he's working up the courage to phone Sydney and leave him a voice-mail—a voice-mail that will, of course, turn out to be hilariously awkward.

Fortunately for Peter, Sydney returns the call and the two of them begin to hang out—a fact that pleases Zooey and amuses her friends, one of whom, Denise (Jaime Pressly), teases Peter by saying that he has a "boyfriend." (This prompts a quick, snappy and funny exchange between Denise and another friend of Zooey's, played by Sarah Burns, which I won't spoil here.) Tensions begin to rise, though, as the time Peter spends with his new buddy eats into the time he would have spent with the woman he's about to marry, and as Sydney begins to take an embarrassingly proactive role in Peter's life (including, among other things, publicly giving Zooey advice on how to improve her sex life with Peter).

Sydney confronts a man who didn't pick up after his dog

Because the film celebrates male friendship, because it co-stars Rudd and Segel (who previously worked together on Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall), and because it features a fair bit of coarse humor (lots of four-letter words, a dog pooping on the sidewalk, a man drinking beer so fast he vomits in someone's face), many people will inevitably associate it with the recent spate of Judd Apatow movies. But Apatow had nothing to do with this one, and in some ways it's almost an improvement on his work.

For one thing, there is no nudity (sex is talked about, often, but never shown), and for another, the film's depiction of women and the relationships men have with them is a little healthier. In Knocked Up, Rudd played a man who has to sneak away from his shrewish, nagging wife in order to spend time with his friends; but here, he plays a man whose fiancée encourages him to spend time with his friend, so much so that he fails to notice, at first, when he may be abusing this freedom. Even the intensely argumentative relationship between Denise and her gruff husband Barry (Jon Favreau, a scene-stealing actor best-known nowadays for directing Iron Man) seems to "function," on some level.

Zooey (Rashida Jones) and Peter toast

What is more, the film subtly, implicitly recognizes that marriage is more than just a more formal way of shacking up; there is also at least the potential for children and greater maturity on the part of the couple. Sydney has no interest in marriage—he says he dates middle-aged divorcées because they want nothing more than a fling, just like him—and his home is practically a shrine to prolonged adolescence. But even as Sydney helps Peter to rediscover the passions of his youth, like playing bass and going to Rush concerts, you can't help thinking that Sydney is missing out on something, as his other friends decline his invitations because they have to spend time with their kids, and so forth.

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