| If it only had a heart... Although made to look like one, I Love You, Man is no Judd Apatow production
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| I LOVE YOU, MAN
Now playing
Make no mistake, I Love You, Man isn't a Judd Apatow production, despite the poster's similarity to those of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Superbad.
Sure, it's pilfered two of his stock players, Paul Rudd (The 40-year-Old Virgin) and Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), but the film has only bothered to phone in a lazy approximation of the growth, honesty and warmth most recognizable in Apatow's maladjusted man-boy protagonists as they mature into productive adults.
The story concerns girlfriend-devoted Peter Klaven (Rudd), whose opening-scene marriage proposal to girlfriend Zooey (Rashida Jones) inspires a quest to establish a "bromance" to ensure his side of the wedding party isn't light. Peter's always been too much of a dedicated boyfriend to let male friendships enter the equation, but after hearing Zooey and her girlfriends (played by Jaime Pressly and Sarah Burns) gossip about the fact that he's a bit of a loner, Peter makes it his mission.
After a longer-than-necessary montage of a bunch of failed attempts and misunderstandings, including a miscommunicated date with a dapper gay man (played by Thomas Lennon) and a high-pitched screecher (played by Joe Lo Truglio) who embarrasses him at a soccer game), Peter encounters free-spirited Sydney Fife (Segel) at a home showing for his realty profession.
The two become fast friends, bonding over Rush (which puts in a cameo appearance) and fish tacos, before plot necessitates a reaction from Zooey about him spending all of his time with his best friend instead of her.
It's during this second-act stretch that the film looses momentum in what's previously been a solid structure to hang hit-or-miss gags on: a jam session with a Back to the Future in-joke works, while Rudd's lame slang attempts, not so much (is it just me, or does he do this in every movie? Do they just let the camera roll on him during takes?)
Directed by John Hamburg (Along Came Polly), the picture is a misfire for the way it habitually brings in funny comic performers (two-thirds of MTV's Human Giant, Andy Samberg as Rudd's brother, a gay personal trainer who prefers to convert straight men for the challenge, and Jane Curtin, as Rudd's mother) to do virtually nothing.
Segel's a bit of fresh air when he appears at the 30-minute mark, a genuinely amusing presence whose character judgments are right on the money. The rest is strictly seen-it-all-before.
— Aaron Graham |
Uptown
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