Normally, I don't review movies until at least the Monday after they premiere thus ensuring that I will never be able to make the claim that it was my glowing review alone that either lifted a movie to the heights of box office excellence or that it was my, "That director was a total D-Bag," comment that crushed it. To push myself down even further into the basement of irrelevance, I will now review last week's new release, I Love You, Man.
I didn't have high hopes for this since director John Hamburg's last movie was the utterly unwatchable, totally unfunny, thoroughly ungood Along Came Polly in which Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston...um...huh, my brain has mercifully blocked the plot of that from my memory while allowing me to retain the knowledge that it sucked. You can't ask for much more than that. Anyway, this more than makes up for what I assume was the incredibly stupid plot of his previous effort. In fact, I Love You, Man is one of the smartest comedies you'll ever see.
The story centers around Peter Klaven, a role that's basically the movie's Paul Rudd character so it was lucky they managed to get Paul Rudd to play him. Peter gets engaged to Zooey (Rashida Jones) who, according to the movie's IMDB page, has no last name which tells me she could be hiding a huge secret we'll discover in the sequel. Anyway, after they get engaged and she calls her friends to tell them (a phone call in which Peter discovers that Zooey does not consider a single detail of their sex life too intimate to hold back from her friends), Peter experiences a moment of clarity. All of his close friends are women. Oh, he has some male acquaintances but there probably isn't a man in the world with whom he has an easy and comfortable friendship, including members of his own family who, at one point, go out of their way to point out that they are closer to each other than they are to him. He can't even think of anyone he'd like to have as his Best Man so he decides to go out and find himself a male friend. After some predictable mishaps (I wonder if it occurred to the writers at any time NOT to have him go out with annoying jerks or gays who thought he was also gay), he meets Sidney Fife (Jason Segal).
Peter is a real estate broker and it's during an open house that Sidney walks in. Sidney is a sometimes uncomfortably honest man who confesses to Peter that he's only there for the free food and to meet loose divorcees. He's also an excellent observer and judge of human nature. He's able to quickly size up every person in the room, including knowing that one of the men has yet to sleep with the woman he's brought along by the fact that he won't fart in front of her. Something about Sidney really appeals to Peter and they end up becoming a 21st century version of the Odd Couple. Peter is closed off and uptight. Sidney, on the other hand, sees nothing wrong with going out in public wearing a plaid shirt, tie-die shorts and Ugg Boots. He does help Peter to open up and have fun but Peter also has to deal with the fact that Sidney, despite being in his 30s, is still emotionally immature and doesn't really have a filter between his brain and his mouth. Gosh, do you suppose this is a combination from which hilarity could ensue? Spoiler Alert: Yes. For example, after Peter confides in Sidney the fact that he wishes Zooey would give him oral sex, Sidney decides to the best thing to do with that information is to incorporate it into a toast at their engagement dinner.
I don't think I've mentioned yet just how funny this movie is. There aren't many comedies, even some that are considered classics, that are funny all the way through. I think I was at least chuckling mildly even through the eventual conflict that threatens to tear Sidney and Peter's friendship apart and no, that's not a spoiler. Anyone who knows anything about story construction knew something like that had to happen. Hell, I could give a detailed plot synopsis and this movie would still be worth watching for the incredibly funny dialogue and performances not just from the main characters but from numerous supporting characters as well. Jon Favreau especially stands out as a guy who's forced by his wife (Zooey's friend) to try to become friends with Peter. Favreau became a big time director last year with the success of Iron Man so I'm really hoping Iron Man 2 sucks so they won't let him direct anymore and he'll have more time to do stuff like this. Comedies used to be made like this before studios decided that only the stars should have be saying anything funny. I also want to commend Jason Segal. He may turn out to be one of our great comic actors. This character is distinctly different from the one he played last year in Forgetting Sarah Marshall as opposed to Paul Rudd who, while quite funny, manages to make every character he plays look the same. I really shouldn't complain too much since he's usually pretty good. I fell bad now, I hope Paul Rudd doesn't read this and get sad. You're awesome, Paul. Don't ever change, except in your movies.
So, if you haven't seen it yet, I Love You, Man is definitely worth your time. If you have seen it, you may not remember since it came out so long ago.
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