I Love You, Man review: Bromance on Girl’s Night

It’s the End of the World as We Know It and I Feel Fine, Kim Jong Il edition.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how unsafe does Phil the Pill feel?

—-

A Movie Review today.

Some of my friends of the female persuasion decided to have a Girl’s Night Out and I got myself invited, because it’s important to occasionally do some reconnaissance. We had Chinese food and went to the movies. As per GNO rules, they picked a movie that, in my opinion, didn’t look very good. We went to see I Love You, Man, which I figured would suck because even funny guys like Paul Rudd and Jason Segel eventually make the Shitty Romantic Comedy. But, hey, I had a couple of free movie tickets to use as a result of my Regal Crown Club card, so it wasn’t like I was going to be paying $10 in support of it.

After blowing $50 in bad movies and overpriced refreshments, you get a free bad movie!

I ended up loving it.
—-

I Love You, Man, directed by John Hamburg, is the quintessential turn-of-the-century Bromance. Realtor Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd – Role Models, Knocked Up) has just proposed to his girlfriend of eight months, Zooey (Rashida Jones – Karen from The Office). Wedding plans are underway when the couple realizes that Peter, as a result of spending most of his time with his girlfriends, has no one to be his best man. After various, interesting man-dates, he runs into Sydney Fife (Jason Segel – Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Marshall from How I Met Your Mother). Sydney and Peter hit it off and, inevitably, it starts to weigh on the engagement, especially given the fact that Peter’s new friend is honest to a fault and impulsive in his decisions.

The ensemble cast is comedically solid. Andy Samberg, J.K. Simmons, and Jane Curtin all play eccentric members of Peter’s family without stealing scenes inappropriately. Sarah Burns and smoking-hot Jamie Pressly play Zooey’s best friends, the latter married to a very rude and very hilarious Jon Favreau. Best extended cameo goes to the 70’s-era Incredible Hulk Lou Ferrigno playing himself.

Spoiler alert: This ends badly

I Love You, Man follows a formula, but reminds us why the formula exists in the first place. Trivial conflicts lead to hilarious awkward moments, the predictable drama among the main characters and loose ends getting neatly tied up. However, while other films force the humor to go places the story doesn’t merit, ILYM enjoys its simple moments, indulges on all the right occasions and doesn’t make excuses for what it is — a movie about guy love. Much like Sydney Fife, the movie knows that there are rules for its genre and follows them, but it never gives you the sense that it needs to make up for these limitations. The moments within the pre-destined journey are non-stop enjoyable.

Rudd and Segel are funny, but are neither obnoxious nor entirely non-grating. At some points, I got the sense that Rudd was too good at being pathetic, while Segel could get creepy enough to be considered a caricature. However, both leads were able to pedal back to give the characters some credibility. There actually are Peters and Sydneys out there in the world and it’s refreshing to see everyone having fun on screen.

Ironically for the Girl’s Night, the movie also has humor that guys will appreciate best such as the contents of the “man cave” and the creepy-crawliness of girlfriends who “share” a lot. The girls I was with enjoyed it, too, though they made a claim that Peter’s attempts at forced best-friendship initially were “too awkward to watch,” which is an issue I don’t think guys have. All in all, the enjoyability factor still seemed pretty universal across gender lines, so it makes a good date movie.

I'm listening.

I think that was the best part of the movie, because it would have been very tempting to make Sydney Fife into a completely batshit insane stalker, which was how the trailer set him up. Instead, he’s just a guy who speaks his mind and doesn’t ask permission to be who he is or go through with an idea. This would get anyone in trouble in the real world and it gets Sydney in trouble here, but you could imagine forgiving him in the end. Comparable characters in comedies never deserve any sort of sympathy but receive it anyway.

Finally, the pacing of the movie is really well done. Each scene, while you could have seen it coming, elicits constant laughter and chuckling and they’re very simple in their premises. Towards the beginning, Peter Klaven goes through the “we’ve-seen-it-before” dating schtick, but rather than finding completely inappropriate romantic prospects, he’s looking for a dude to fulfill the platonic void. This kickstart freshens the dynamic enough to enjoy the gags both big and small. It’s also satisfying on a character level to see Peter pick up some of Sydney’s quirks and move away from being a girlfriends’ boy.

So, on the whole, much better than I would have expected and a comedy on par with Rudd and Segel’s proving grounds, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I’d give it 8 out of 10 Rush jam sessions.

—-

Just listened to: The Hazards of Love by The Decemberists…it’s good and an interesting concept album, but it doesn’t match Her Majesty and Picaresque.
Read recently: Finished Part I of The Fountainhead. I must say…against my better judgment, I’m enjoying it.
Watching tomorrow: Ben Stein’s Expelled, because I have to be, as Math puts it, “politically correct” and watch something with a right-wing bent in my documentary project