I Love You, Man (2009)
Directed by: John Hamburg
Premise: A friendless real estate salesman (Paul Rudd) tries to make some male friends to be in his wedding party. When he becomes fast friends with a carefree guy’s-guy (Jason Segel), the friendship comes in the way of his relationship with his fiancé (Rashida Jones).
What Works: Actors Paul Rudd and Jason Segel are very good together as an odd couple and the montages of the two doing guy things are usually pretty amusing. The friendship parallels nicely with the romantic relationship as one complicates the other. A lot of the supporting roles are very well cast and they deliver a lot of the humor.
What Doesn’t: I Love You, Man is amusing but never rolling-in-the-aisles funny. Most of the humor is based on sarcasm and comes from the supporting characters but the leads do not add very much. Paul Rudd’s character is so socially awkward that he is often painful to watch and Jason Segel’s role in underwritten. A lot of the film is fairly predictable, following a generic plotline for a third-party love story, but instead of falling for another woman, the protagonist discovers platonic male companionship. The film squanders a lot of opportunities for insight into male relationships and keeps tossing softballs at the subject.
Bottom Line: I Love You, Man is another comedy following on the coattails of Judd Apatow. This film is not nearly as successful as Apatow’s productions; it’s not bad but it is a very disposable and forgettable film.
Episode: #233 (March 29, 2009)