 "Photo: Photo Courtesy of filmnest.com")
In a new year lacking in comedy, I Love You, Man will hopefully be the start of a spring and summer season filled with outrageously funny films.
It's amazing how a formulaic plotline-a man searching for a true best friend before his wedding finds companionship in an illustrious bachelor-can make a hilariously original film when actors like Paul Rudd and Jason Segal star in it.
Rudd has become one of the comedy golden boys and has appeared in five films in the past two years, including 2008's Role Models with Sean William Scott. Segal is fairly new to the mainstream-comedy circuit and had his comedic role in 2008's Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which received universal acclaim for its shockingly funny antics, including a full frontal nude scene for Segal.
I Love You, Man lacks the over-the-top high-speed chases and scenes of raunchy nudity that are characteristic of Judd Apatow's movies. No discredit to Apatow, perhaps the world's most popular comic director/producer of the 21st century, but John Hamburg of Along Came Polly and Larry Levin, a writer from the sitcom Seinfeld, made a charming and witty film in I Love You, Man, that sits as a comfortable and diverse counterpart to most popular comedies.
The dynamic character chemistry of Rudd and Segal is what makes the film comic genius. Rudd plays the conservative, friendly woman's man, Peter Klaven, who realizes before his wedding that his wife has a plethora of gossipy female companions and sets out on a mission to find a male one. After a series of awkward and uncomfortable man dates that include a sporting event that ends in a fight and a dinner that ends in a kiss, Klaven, an L.A. realtor, is ready to give up, until he has a friendly encounter with a trendy bachelor at an open house. Sydney Fife (Jason Segal) is hilariously witty, self-confident and charming and makes a more relaxed and free-spirited man out of Klaven. Klaven and Fife become inseparable, so much so that Klaven's fiancé Zooey (Rashida Jones) becomes irritated with her husband's unorthodox relationship with his new companion, which includes seven-hour jam sessions, covering Rush songs. Klaven and Fife's relationship of course goes through some turmoil, as Klaven struggles to split time between his fiancé and new best friend.
The film ends with the typical Hollywood comedy formula, but it works, so who cares. What really makes I Love You, Man so instantly classic is the awkward nature of Paul Rudd's interpretation of Klaven and Fife's intangible wit. Whenever the two friends leave each other, Klaven tries to act smooth and toss a nickname at Fife, but instead stumbles over his own words and spits out phrases like "Jobin," and "Totes Magotes."
In an interview on Feb. 6, Rudd and Segal used their comic prowess to answer questions of several critics. When asked their example of a perfect man date, Rudd responded:
"An early dinner. I want to have an early dinner because I don't-if it's late, then you're eating into valuable time…I'd like to have a Brazilian dinner at-maybe starting at 5:30, six. You know what, 6:00 is okay. I'd like to finish dinner-I'd like to have-I'd like to have a pitcher of sangria. And then I would like to go back to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel," Rudd continued, "where I have rented a suite and slip into a bathtub of linseed oil. And then I would like a massage-an ice cream massage. Yeah. And then finally settle down with a little SpectroVision and then maybe catch Defiance-the film with Daniel Craig." As Rudd narrated his tale, Segal sat in silence, obviously contemplating his witty response.
"Yeah. I'd like to have like a-sometime around 5:45-just some Argentinean food-real casual Argentinean dinner, maybe a pitcher of red sangria," Segal said. "And then I would head back to a suite at the Four Seasons that I have rented and give the guy who I am having a man date with a-just a bath in like salted butter." Segal and Rudd are as comical and puerile in person as they are in their films, which is representative of a true comedian. Unlike Will Ferrell and Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and Jason Segal have the ability to make comedies mildly realistic and, at times, even reasonable, while still being outrageously funny.
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