We aren't all bros. Some of us never mastered the hugs after Badger wins or the art of a graceful body slam to celebrate a flip-cup victory. We hung out with the girls in high school and are better at quoting John Hughes movies than basketball scores. Apparently writer/director John Hamburg felt our pain. With ""I Love You, Man,"" he's given us a comedy that captures the awkwardness of establishing and maintaining male friendships.
Peter (Paul Rudd, ""Role Models"") has proposed to the girl of his dreams, Zooey (Rashida Jones, ""The Office""). Gleefully, she calls up her girlfriends to tell them the good news, but quickly realizes that her husband-to-be has nobody to call. He doesn't even have anyone who could be his best man. A round of laughs at his expense at girls' night quickly pushes Peter to find a friend.
""Awkwardly brilliant"" describes the entirety of Rudd's performance as Peter. Layers, heaps and shades of awkward. He's a hilarious lead, but prepare to be uncomfortable. He stumbles through the male world, attempting to start up friendly conversation with co-workers and the guys on his fencing team, but failing miserably.
Andy Samberg (""Saturday Night Live"") steals some scenes here as Peter's brother, who offers the rules of platonic male relationships. ""Lunch or after-work cocktails. No dinner and a movie—you're not taking these guys to see ‘The Devil Wears Prada,'"" he says.
In a movie that could easily devolve into a 90-minute gay joke, it's refreshing to see a gay character portrayed so honestly and free of clichés—this guy just lifts weights and bones dudes, no biggie.
At last, Peter stumbles across the man of his dreams in Sydney (Jason Segel, ""Forgetting Sarah Marshall""), an easygoing investment broker who never wears a suit, lets his dog shit anywhere and proudly displays his jerk-off gear on a coffee table in his man cave. The free spirit that uptight Peter never knew, Sydney teaches Peter how to cut loose by ""slappin' the bass"" to Rush whenever possible.
Segel is a wacky guy, and the performance seems less a transformation than the camera capturing how Segel actually lives his days not spent on film. His lectures on the virtues of overt maleness are a blend of brilliance and immaturity, and all bear a contradictory quality that lead Peter, when acting on his lessons, to get himself into hot water with Zooey.
Hamburg seems to allow the cast a fair amount of room for improvising certain scenes, like Peter's unbearably awkward phone conversations or the complete nonsense he passes as nicknames for Sydney. These scenes, though funny on the whole, really drag on the momentum of the story. Sometimes you just have to kill your darlings, even the completely original, bizarrely awkward ones.
Despite this, what could have been a very conventional film shines with an original cast and script, making for a spring comedy gem.
Grade: AB
