THIS BREEZY, entertaining romp begins where most romantic comedies end, when real estate agent Peter (Paul Rudd) gets engaged to his lover Zooey (Rashida Jones). She picks up the phone right away, spreading the news to her girlfriends, who clearly are remarkably well informed on all the intimacies of the couple’s sex life.
The twist is that Peter realises that he has no close male friends to call. Even his father (JK Simmons) is closer to Peter’s brother (Andy Samberg), a gym trainer who is openly gay and savours the challenge of pursuing straight men. Peter feels shut out of the locker-room camaraderie among his fencing partners, and he envies the closeness between Zooey and her confidantes.
Mortified to overhear one of those women warning that “a guy without friends can be really clingy,” Peter embarks on awkward “man dates” in the hope of finding one true friend who will be best man at his wedding.
But life is more complicated than that, and it’s during an average working day (he is selling the mansion owned by Incredible Hulk actor Lou Ferrigno) that Peter meets investor Sydney, played by Jason Segel.
In a longstanding genre tradition, the two men are polar opposites. Peter is neat and orderly, likes saccharine movies such as Chocolat, and is shy and private about his personal life. Sydney is slovenly, lives in a "man cave" and embarrasses Peter when he casually initiates a candid chat about their masturbation fantasies.
The screenplay, by Larry Levin director John Hamburg, is most effective as it trades in the comedy of embarrassment, pokes fun at the linguistic contrivances of dude- speak, and acutely observes perceptions of masculinity, metrosexuality and male self- image in the post-feminist universe.
Resisting any temptation to overplay Peter’s insecurities, Rudd is engagingly deadpan, investing him with an endearing sincerity that encourages the viewer to cringe in sympathy with his homosocial gaucheness.
The chemistry sparked between Rudd and Segel unexpectedly taps into the warmth at the core of the familiar romcom arc, even though the relationship is platonic in this coarse but essentially sweet- natured movie.
I LOVE YOU, MAN Directed by John Hamburg. Starring Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, JK Simmons, Jane Curtin, Jon Favreau 16 cert, gen release, 104 min ***
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