I Love You, Man

Review by Anthony Morris

Like every single trend since the dawn of time, Hollywood is going to run the current fad for crude yet emotionally heartfelt comedies like I Love You, Man into the ground. 

Foul-mouthed dudes and the women who love them have been getting a real good run at the cinemas since Judd Apatow hit it big with The 40 year-Old Virgin, and it's up to the individual to work out at which film the whole thing just stops being funny. 

But there is a pretty good chance that for a few people, I Love You, Man just might be that film. 

Not because it is all that bad either.

It does everything this kind of comedy is supposed to and, with Paul Rudd and Jason Segel in the leads, you have two of the current funniest guys in movies doing their best to keep things rolling along.

There is even a decent concept behind all the comedy...

Rudd is a fairly uptight guy who is about to get married, only he has been a "girlfriend guy" since his teens - so he has to go out there and find a male "best friend". 

Enter Jason Segel, as a perfectly nice but kind of quirky guy who might only seem to be the solution to all of Rudd's problems. 

There are plenty of funny scenes here, and the performances are top-notch, but after a while the story starts to wobble a bit.

This mostly stems from the fact that the central joke is that these two guys are having a platonic romance, and so the plot follows the usual plot of a romantic comedy. 

You know the deal. They meet, they fall for each other, they split up over a misunderstanding / trivial matter, then get back together right at the end. 

But with two men it doesn't really work: either they would ignore the problem, or if it was too big to ignore they would just punch each other out or never speak to each other again. 

Which they can't do with this formula, so the final act feels a little weak as they just sorta drift apart a bit. 

I Love You, Man's minor wobbles aren't anywhere near enough to say this genre is dead – let's at least wait until The Hangover is out in a fortnight or so - but it is starting to look a little unsteady.

3.5 out of 5

I Love You, Man
Australian release: 4th June, 2009
Official Site: I Love You, Man
Cast: Paul Rudd, Jon Favreau, Jaime Pressly, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones
Director: John Hamburg