wcbe: : I Love You, Man (2009-03-14)

"At the heart of male bonding is this experience of boys in early puberty: they know they must break free from their mothers and the civilized world of women, but they are not ready yet for the world of men, so they are only at home with other boys, equally outcast, equally frightened, and equally involved in posturing what they believe to be manhood." Frank Pittman

It's a "man-date"!

Yes, it's a phenomenon I know little about: Men who need friends go on "man-dates." I Love You, Man is a Judd Apatow-type comedy about an engaged real estate salesman Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd�an Apatow grad), who, as a typical "girlfriend guy," needs to make male friends, especially because he knows no one to be his best man. The estimable director Patrice Leconte got to a similar subject in My Best Friend but with fewer laughs but a smoother take all around as befitting the French.

Writer/director John Hamburg's little comedy of manners has the usual scatological jokes, but mostly in the beginning to establish its cred as a funny albeit raunchy guy (and chick) flick. Sometimes the director shows his lack of comedic deftness, for instance, when new buddy "investor" Sydney (Jason Segel) lets his dog poop three times, the first not very funny, much less two more times without pickling it up�but, hey, just seeing it happen is tasteless and boring enough.

I Love You, Man even has its Seth Rogen slacker in Segel, who is more laid-back than Rogen but less funny. The combination of Rudd and Segel is comically successful, an apples-and-oranges act that plays authentic, partly because their characters are honest guys with typical issues that they unusually talk about. For example, Rudd's fianc�, Zooey (Rashida Jones) apparently doesn't like oral sex; Segel moves that piece of privacy with a very public toast and through much of the movie, mostly as a motif to parse Rudd's relationship with his fianc�.

Because deconstructing male friendships is mostly unchartered territory for movies (women have owned the chick- bonding theme forever), Hamburg does an admirable job playing with the many variations of male bonding. Most telling is the juxtaposition of girlfriends sharing all and males sharing little and the attendant indignation on the part of the ladies when the men start serious bonding.

Hamburg does well enough with other characters, such as a bickering couple played by Jon Favreau and Jaime Pressly and JK Simmons' earthy dad. Overall, I Love You, Man is a welcome addition to the current spate of light adult fare that opens up the possibility of further male-psyche exploration. It's wild territory and potentially more satirical than this movie.