I Love You, Man

"I Love You, Man," as noted by Ebert, could have been pretty run-of-the-mill. But it elevates to a slyly hilarious and constantly amusing comedy. Paul Rudd is pretty perfectly cast as a feminine real estate agent named Peter Klaven. He's engaged to Zooey, played by Rashida Jones in a more nuanced performance than anything of Tea Leoni's. Jones is able to fill that slightly annoying girlfriend mold with a variation that is quite enjoyable. Anyways, Peter has a great relationship with Zooey and has had luck with women all his life since he's not exactly macho. He doesn't have a lot of guys that he hangs out with, and the culture of dudes and mandates and such is quite foreign to him.

He's assisted by his gay brother Robbie (the always pretty funny Andy Samberg) around the gym. He's hooked up with a lot of characters, including one gay man (a subtly amusing Thomas Lennon) who thinks that Peter is involved with him. Then, Peter meets Sydney Fife, a totally macho broseph at an open house for the guy who played Hulk on TV. Fife is played by Jason Segel, in a wonderfully comedic performance. Sydney and Peter hit it off, very easily. This provokes Peter to try to be really macho, and he fails miserably. This is the movie's most colorful joy, I'll leave it at that. Sydney tries not to care, and invites Peter to his mancave where the two discover they both have a serious Rush fetish and bond and tell secrets. Soon, Zooey believes that Peter is spending more time with Sydney, and... well, the results are pretty great.

What's ironic is that Will Farrell and John C. Reilly, two pretty seasoned comedians, tried to do the same thing roughly in "Step Brothers," and it was horribly immature. I couldn't finish it. Here, the childishness is part of the fun. Rudd and Segel, free to control the screen, do quite well and prove to create many, many good laughs. John Hamburg, who wrote the screenplays for a few Ben Stiller vehicles, writes(along with Larry Levin) and directs to greatness and capitalizes on a vital and funny trend in society at the moment. Perfectly timed and silly like the name of Segel's dog (Anwar Sadat LOL), "I Love You, Man" manages to be the funniest film of the year so far and breaks the mold for bromances sure to come, although none will be quite as funny as this one. B+