I Love You, Man

I Love You, Man, starring the cute-as-a-button Paul Rudd, is a bromance. But not a bromance in the “help me get laid” sense like 40-Year Old Virgin or the “let’s help each other get laid” sense like Wedding Crashers. It’s a surprisingly sweet and honest look at man-to-man friendships.

Rudd plays Peter, a sweet “nice guy” who invests so much time and energy into each of his relationships with his girlfriends, he’s made it pretty far into his adulthood without any close guy friends. And without any close guy friends, he’s got no one to serve as his best man at the upcoming wedding to his fiancee, Zooey (Rashida Jones). While some of Zooey’s friends suggest that a guy without guy friends will make a horrible husband (clingy, needy, time-consuming), her real motivation to help Peter start “man-dating” is simply that she thinks he’s missing out on something.

One “strictly platonic” personal ad later, Peter starts going through a revolving door of wannabe best-bros. And any gay guy can relate to his blind date and fix-up experiences. There’s Zooey’s best-friend’s husband, who already hates Peter. There’s the 90-year old widower.  There’s a squeaky-voiced sports fan. There’s even the guy that forces his tongue down Peter’s throat at the end of an otherwise perfect evening. Yeah there is some obligatory gay-joking, but it’s inclusion makes sense and isn’t offensive.

And then when he isn’t looking, Peter meets Sydney (Jason Segal) at an open house he’s staging for a property he’s trying to sell…Lou Ferrigno’s (TV’s Incredible Hulk, who cameos) pad. Sydney is a dude’s dude. And as his and Peter’s odd-coulle relationship starts to grow and deepen, a different side of Peter starts to show itself. That jams Rush in a garage band. The kind that misses dates with his fiancée. In fact Zooey eventually starts to wonder if there is such a thing as a guy that can be masculine and sensitive at the same time. 

I don’t think it would revel much to say that there’s a break up and a make up (between Peter and Sydney!) and in the end Sydney makes a dramatic entrance at the wedding to take his place next to Peter as his best man.

Sweet and genuine, I Love You, Man is a unique take on buddy films. But even a couple of days after having seen the film, I kept thinking about Zooey’s discomfort with at first Peter not being “guy” enough and then being uncomfortable with his being too much of a “dude”. I wonder, does being the perfect man (sensitive, caring, sweet) really mean being a woman?

(Images courtesy of Dreamworks)

Comments

[Amuseline]

Yeah! He's sweet!))