An unoffensive, genuinely funny American bromance comedy is at a premium in the cinematic sphere, John Hamburg's I LOVE YOU, MAN is a modest achievement mostly thanks to the amiable chemistry between Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, and it doesn't lay on thick the genre's go-to stock-on-trades like crude jokes, macho braggadocio or lavatory humor (though projectile vomiting is a perennial gag).
Rudd plays Peter, a Los Angeles realtor realizes that he doesn't have a suitable male friend who can be his best man after being affianced with Zoey (Jones), with time is ticking, Peter desperately looks for a newfound best buddy, and after several clangers (include an inadvertent gay kiss), a perfect candidate crops up in the person of Sydney Fife (Segel), an investor whose man cave becomes Peter's new stomping ground, where they buddy up through their mutual love of Rush and jam together.
If Peter represents the totally non-threatening everyday man, radiant in front of the opposite sex, has a cushy job and healthy family, dares not reveal his quibble about his sex life to his girlfriend, almost anonymous in character but basically a good, straight -up guy; Sydney seems not far on the sliding scale, laid-back, open-faced, no strings attached, and is brutally honest in his sometimes unsolicited advise, but is he essentially a good guy? Hamburg slyly plays the trick of Sydney's pecuniary request which in reality is often the deal-breaker of untested friendship, that necessitates some semblance of vague suspense in this otherwise straightforward, paint-by-number romcom.
Relationship discord inevitably transpires when blokey bonding exceeds the boundary, but thankfully, the film doesn't let women take the blame for two men just want to have some innocuous fun, Zoe is, for what it is worth, the apparent enabler of the two buddies' reconciliation, though, she is merely gilding the lily in this feel-good, contentment-inducing entertainment that for once, emits some positive vibes about male-bonding without being overly crass, homophobic or sexist, does Hollywood still make comedies like that anymore?
referential entries: Judd Apatow's KNOCKED UP (2007, 7.2/10); Shawn Levy's DATE NIGHT (2010, 5.6/10).
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