Since the critically acclaimed The 40-Year-Old Virgin came out in 2005, there has been a stream of films copying its refreshing take on adult humor.
In some way, shape or form, writer and director Judd Apatow has been involved in these films, but other filmmakers lately have been able to replicate Apatow’s formula without bastardizing it. Last year’s Role Models did a great job of applying this formula, and Dreamworks’ I Love You, Man takes the formula and makes the tired genre of the ‘buddy film’ fresh again.
Apatow regulars Paul Rudd (Role Models, Knocked Up) and Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) anchor this film with their wonderfully contrasting characters. Peter (Rudd) is a straight-laced realtor who proposes to his girlfriend Zooey (Rashida Jones). After overhearing a conversation about his lack of male friends, Peter sets out to look for a best man to be at his wedding.
The road is definitely rocky, as he meets an internet-savvy 84-year-old, a soccer fan with a high-pitched voice and Doug (Thomas Lennon), who slips him the tongue after one of their ‘man-dates.’ When Peter meets Sydney (Segel) at an open house for a property he’s trying to sell, they hit it off and mesh instantly.
Soon, they’re eating fish tacos, walking Sydney’s dog ‘Anwar Sadat’ on the Venice Beach boardwalk and jamming out to Rush, but all this newfound attention to Sydney makes Zooey feel left out. Peter then has to make a decision regarding Sydney’s friendship before his wedding.
Suffice to say, the plot is probably something you’ve seen before, but like other Apatow movies, the humor is what makes the movie.
Sydney is uninhibited in his comments and is brutally honest to a fault. This leads to an interesting toast he makes at a dinner before the wedding. Peter, on the other hand, deals with his awkwardness around other guys and the trouble with selling the house of Lou Ferrigno, who makes a great cameo. Also worth noting is Jon Favreau, who directed last year’s summer blockbuster Iron Man. Angry, bitter and sexually-repressed, his scenes in the movie are golden.
By all means lewd, crass and inappropriate, I Love You, Man doesn’t disappoint those who’ve seen movies like this before. The humor is unrelenting in this respect and deserving of its R-rating, but underneath all the jokes is a well-meaning tale of friendship that works out nicely in the end. Fans of Apatow’s movies will definitely feel right at home.’
