I Love You, Man focuses on relationships. I would almost say friendship, but Paul Rudd and Jason Segel borderline friendship/relationship. I guess you can call it a “bro-mance.” The movie actually talks about the guys who grew up always having girlfriends, but always ditching their friends. So, as they get older, all they have are their relationships with their girlfriends. We all probably have been in that situation before or you may be the person who only has girlfriends, but no real guy friends at all. Either way, this movie speaks to both sides, but with awkward situations and comedy.
Rudd plays Peter, who is getting married but has no idea who can be his best man. His fiancee is the first girl to let him have any type of freedom for him to hang out with his friends. However, he doesn’t have any. So Peter goes on “man-dates” to try and find a guy who he can relate to and become friends with. He meets Sydney (Jason Segel) and the two hit it off. Perhaps too much. Peter and Sydney hang out more and more and his fiancee starts to get pushed to the side.
It is weird at times to watch the chemistry between Rudd and Segel because it appears at times almost like a gay relationship. And if he was not getting married, you would really start to question it. But with this awkwardness comes the humor. Peter is uptight and Sydney is carefree. So these two guys find common qualities that they share and maybe they are not that much different from each other. Before you know it, they are telling secrets in the “man cave” and of course these secrets are to never leave it either.
A lot of credit goes to Rudd and Segel because they are the movie. Jason Segel is on How I Met Your Mother and got to shine in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Now, Paul Rudd has been around for a long time, but started to appear in bigger, comedic movies starting with Knocked Up. Last year he was in Role Models, but I was disappointed in that one. I felt like there could have been more. And, the chemistry between Rudd and Segel surpasses the chemistry between Rudd and Sean William Scott by a long shot. Rudd, for me, finally got to shine in this movie. And he is starting to become a bigger name in film, especially in the comedy genre.
The movie is funny, crude, and really shows a new side of a friendship or a relationship or whatever Peter and Sydney have. It’s a blurred line. But, it is funny. And it’s funny mainly because of Rudd and Segel. Now there is an underlining message in this, which works as well. But the director really throws in a lot of funny situations throughout the movie and keeps you laughing pretty much through the whole thing. And for a comedy—that’s a good thing.
“Nature Boy” Brandon Vick is the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and star of Brandon’s Box Office In Your Mouth. Follow him on Twitter@SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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