I Love You, Male (2009)

Directed by: John Hamburg | 105 minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Sarah Burns, Greg Levine, Jaime Pressly, Jon Favreau, Jane Curtin, JK Simmons, Andy Samberg, Jean Villepique, Rob Huebel, Colleen Crabtree, Kym Whitley, Caroline Farah, Mather Zickel

A nice concept and a good protagonist are the elements that keep ‘I Love You, Man’ going. It is a film along the lines of ‘The 40-year Old Virgin’, ‘Knocked Up’, ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’, and ‘Superbad’; all movies that Judd Apatow had something to do with, as producer or director. However, he has nothing to do with this film, but protagonists Paul Rudd and Jason Segal have been seen (together) in his films before. In this way, the films become a bit like R&B/hip-hop clips, in which there seems to be only a pool of about ten people, who continuously participate in the form of “featurings” or duets. So it also seems to be a select group of friends that always visit each other and offer work. A little incestuous perhaps, but for the comedy fan, the kidney is necessarily a bad thing. Apatow and his club have provided a pleasant kind of humor, with natural dialogues and recognizable and (therefore) often very funny characters. It’s the same with ‘I Love You, Man’, a film in which the demeanor of the dryly comical, relaxed Paul Rudd provides many entertaining moments, but at the same time the “laid-back” of the script and the dialogues ensure that it is not comical. has become a masterpiece and the film still lags behind ‘The 40-Year Old Virgin’ and ‘Knocked Up’. Yet there are certainly more annoying ways to spend a good hour and a half.

In addition to the rather original premise of the “man-dates” that Peter engages in and the development of a male (friendly) relationship in a romantic comedy, ‘I Love You, Man’ is attractive because of its casual atmosphere and Rudd’s cool humor. . The dialogues often come across as natural and as a spectator you are usually not forced to wait for the next punch line or frenzied thigh chatter. In an interview, Rudd said that, like director Hamburg, he likes awkward silences and jokes that more or less kill, and moments like this appear regularly in the film. These are mainly a result of Peter’s (Rudd) attempts to appear hip. A fun recurring joke is that he tries to come up with cool nicknames for his new friend Sydney (after the latter calls him “Pistol Pete”) but comes up with the most moronic creations. This is all completely new to him, as he normally only hangs out with women and for example watches the movie ‘Chocolat’ with his girlfriend on the couch. Or he engages in unusual hobbies such as fencing, where he proudly remarks afterwards that he has made such a great “glissade”. So he could certainly use a smooth friend like Sydney, although he doesn’t know how to behave with him at first. He’s a fish-in-the-dry in the same way as Steve Carrell in ‘The 40 Year Old Virgin’. And Rudd knows how to exploit the humor in these moments like no other. With a funny kind of vicarious embarrassment, the viewer watches him as he tries to appear tough and contemporary.

Fortunately, Sydney finds him amusing and the two naturally develop a close friendship, jamming together in their two-man band, going shopping, and confiding their most intimate secrets to each other. The latter results in a funny scene at dinner with the parents of Peter and his fiancée Zooey, with Sydney using such an intimate piece of information for a sexual tip to Zooey. Sydney is a bit of an anarchist, a representation of the wild bachelor life. He walks in Hawaiian shorts and those awful padded Ugg boots, but it all works for him anyway. He has a small, ugly mutt dog, which he calls Anwar Sadat, after the Egyptian president (because of the resemblance). As the ultimate example of rebellion, he lets this beast poop everywhere without picking it up himself with a bag. In a somewhat strange, contrived scene, he roars loudly in the face of a pedestrian who steps into the beast’s turd and complains about it. This gives rise to the clichéd moments of the “primal scream” which he then goes on to teach Peter and which must bring him in contact with his true, uninhibited self. They are calibrated scenes that this film really shouldn’t need, as a great strength of the film is precisely that it breaks new paths for a romantic comedy.

Ironically, however, it is again the lack of traditional conflict that keeps the film a bit too casual and flat. Peter’s fiancée looks a bit like the understanding woman, who only briefly counteracts the obligatory obstacle the couple/hero has to face in the last act. But this does not mean much in terms of content or emotionality. The success of the film is therefore almost exclusively dependent on the humor, which fortunately often works well. Not that the viewer always lies on the floor laughing – because the jokes of the film itself sometimes kills too – but it is usually at least amusing. Still, there seems to be a bit too much depending on the movie’s premise of the male relationship, which is fun, but not so hilarious or original that it makes the whole movie funny. Well, he goes on dates with guys to fill the “vacancy” for best friend and this is quite comical. It offers the opportunity for a variety of gay jokes, especially because of the presence of his gay brother (a fun role by Saturday Night Live celebrity Andy Samberg), who helps him meet men. Also the usual dating nerves that he (now) has regarding meeting/calling a man are of course amusing in this context. But the comic potential of this has been worked out at some point. Plus, it’s not entirely new: The “Seinfeld” series features pretty much the same—and better—jokes in the episode where Jerry tries to build a friendship with a favorite baseball player of his.

Yet, together with the successful cast, it is enough to make ‘I Love You, Man’ an entertaining, refreshing comedy. Paul Rudd is in dryly comedic form, Jason Segel is likeable, charming, and funny through his recklessness and shamelessness, and the fun supporting actors JK Simmons, Jon Favreau and Andy Samberg give the film just the unique comedic impulse it needs to counterbalance Rudds cool style. All in all, these actors fortunately manage to compensate for the somewhat uninspired rippling script. Maybe ‘I Love You, Man’ isn’t exactly a movie to love, but many will certainly enjoy it.