Screen writer/director John Hamburg, who directed Along Came Polly (2004), has a new screenplay that is a rock solid, romantic comedy. The title says it all.
I Love You, Man is a fun, funny film. This year’s Sideways was shot in Venice Beach, California instead of Napa Valley. It is a film about guys for guys and girls. Two manly men find each other and hard rock, while relearning the must-dos of manhood.
I Love You, Man is a somewhat exploratory, fairly diverse film with many types of men, including gay men, but gay sex is not the subject of this film. The star and co-star are real men climbing the corporate ladder, each in their own way.
Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) and Sydney Fife (Jason Segel) make a perfect match. Peter is an insecure real estate agent, and Sydney is a financial investor who wears surfer shorts with suede boots every day. Coincidently, while California’s real estate market and the financial markets have fallen off the radar, there is no hint of this reality in I Love You, Man.
Peter feels financial success is around the corner and therefore asks his girlfriend Zooey (Jane Curtin) to marry him. They are madly in love. He is so convinced of her rightness that he has already set up a beach wedding in Santa Barbara. Paul is a perfect catch and a near-perfect man (sexually), but he has one flaw that seems unforgivable to his fiancé and her BFFs: he has no best male friend in his life, therefore he has no best man.
Even Peter’s gay brother is best friends with their dad, but the brothers fail to click. He tries to help Peter change his lifestyle by inviting him to the gym. The gym begets only “bad dates” and more learning what not to do on a man date. Los Angeles' real estate is the backdrop, but the real comedy surfaces in Venice Beach, where Sydney has a cottage near the beach and a “man cave” in the backyard.
Article comments
1 - James
Loved the film, very funny. Paul Rudd and Jason Segel where both very strong in this movie
Not sure why you needed to make mention that the main characters where 'real men' (meaning straight), after talking about gay men. Certainly hope thats not inferring anything about homosexuality, which I thought the film used well for both comedic effect, and to highlight that essentially every man that acts honorably is worthy of being called a man, regardless of sexual orientation.
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2 - Heloise
Hi, I mentioned it because it was part of the comedic heat of the movie, as in the old mountain men. They were trying hard to distinguish themnselves from gay men, I guess I should have said.
Heloise
3 - bliffle
Good point, Heloise. One of the funny things about men (at least American men) out on a 'man date' is the pains they take to differentiate themselves from a gay couple.
4 - Renu
Really enjoyed this movie a lot. Hope others did too.