I go to see movies at the theater for a variety of reasons. One draw
lately has been the presence of actors and actresses from favorite
television shows as they branch out into films. Freaks and Geeks and The Office got me interested in I Love You, Man,
a buddy comedy featuring Jason Segel and Rashida Jones as Sydney and
Zooey, the two most important people in the life of socially awkward
real estate agent Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd). The R rating might have
scared me off of buying a ticket, but I couldn't resist the free
preview, so this evening I enjoyed a girls' night out watching a movie
all about male bonding.
Judd Apatow isn't attached to this
movie in any way, but director John Hamburg, who wrote the screenplay
with Larry Levin, seems to be taking a leaf from Apatow's book. The
comedy is extremely raunchy, but it also has a lot of heart. Aside from
the occasional superfluous f-bomb and some alluded-to pre-marital
nocturnal activities, real estate agent Peter is a PG kind of guy living
in an R-rated world. He's sweet and considerate, a romantic who is
attentive to his girlfriend and respectful to women in general. Around
men, he's a little more uncomfortable, partly because he somehow is
surrounded by a bunch of boorish brutes, like office frenemy Tevin (Rob
Huebel), who laughs uproariously over inappropriate videos and tries to
weasel in on Peter's commission, and Barry (Jon Favreau), the
aggressive, confrontational husband of Zooey's friend Denise (Jaime
Pressly). It isn't until he proposes and Zooey celebrates the news with
her gal pals that his lack of male friendships really hits home.
Thus, the first part of the movie finds Peter rather pathetically
pursuing a friend of his own through a series of disastrous "man dates"
that include poker night with a bunch of beer-swilling hotheads, a
soccer game with an excitable guy who sounds like a Muppet and dinner
with a fellow who's a little too companionable for comfort. As is so
often the case, however, the "aha!" moment comes when Peter isn't
looking for it. He stumbles upon the uninhibited Sydney by accident and
is taken aback by his candor and their easy rapport with each other.
Friendship blooms. Sydney, who supports himself with an investment
career but otherwise lives in an extended state of adolescence, begins
to bring Peter out of his shell. Peter's happy, and Zooey is happy for
him - until it starts to seem like Sydney has taken over his life...
I was a big fan of Nick Andopolis, the earnest, gentle, perpetually stoned teen Segel played on Freaks and Geeks.
Sydney is like him in some ways, particularly in his fondness for
jamming in his garage. Like Nick, he's a goofball but a good friend.
However, he is much more attuned to the world around him than Nick is,
and he's got a fairly crass attitude about relationships, especially his
own. While I definitely prefer Nick, Sydney is a pretty good guy, and
his cleverness comes across particularly well in one scene that requires
keeping a close eye on the screen. Jones never really won me over on The Office,
but then I suspect she wasn't supposed to. Instead of an icy romantic
rival, she's a warm, caring woman here, very much in love with her
fiance and eager to show him affection while leaving him space to
develop his own interests and friendships. It would have been very easy
in a movie like this to turn the wife-to-be into a shrew, but she
doesn't come across that way at all. There's never much doubt that these
two are an ideal couple. (While we're on the subject of favorite
television shows, fellow LOST fans should keep an eye out for a reference that made my friend and me squeal for all in the packed house to hear.)
Some of the more innocent humor in the film derives from Peter's
mangled attempts to sound suave when talking with others, particularly
Sydney. The results are so ridiculous that I found myself thinking of
bumbling Tim nonsensically regurgitating Wilson's sage advice on Home Improvement.
I also like the dynamics of his family, particularly between his dad
(J. K. Simmons) and brother Robbie (Andy Samberg), who both care for
Peter deeply but don't seem to understand him as well as his doting
mother (Jane Curtin) does. As a big fan of Saturday Night Live,
particularly since his arrival, I could have done with more Samberg, but
his scenes do a good job of establishing the dynamics of Peter and
Robbie's brotherhood. Unfortunately, for every touching family moment or
guilt-free laugh, there is an entirely too anatomical joke or a
monologue filled with four-letter words. The profanity is fairly
pervasive, and some of the sexually charged subject matter is likely to
offend, while a running joke involving dog defecation is distasteful at
best. The plus side is that most of the really lewd stuff is verbal
rather than visual, so while this movie earns its R rating many times
over, it's still considerably less graphic than it could have been.
As with just about every R-rated comedy I've ever seen, I walked away
thinking, "Well, I would have liked that better if it had been PG-13."
Put my objections to the conventions of contemporary "adult" comedies
aside, though, and you've got a movie with a fair number of laughs and a
trio of characters you just can't help but root for.
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