"I Love You, Man" is the latest in a string of films featuring awkward guys that audiences love to laugh at, but there's a catch: this one's actually funny.
"I Love You, Man" introduces its audiences to up and coming real estate agent Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd, "Role Models"), an awkward — very awkward — floundering romantic who has just proposed to his girlfriend, Zooey (Rashida Jones, "The Office").
But Peter has no guy friends. No bros, no crew. He's a "girlfriend guy," according to his father — surprising, given the extreme levels of awkwardness that radiate from Peter. He's always hung around with the ladies, which presents a problem: who will be the best man at the wedding?
It takes him awhile and several uncomfortable attempts at "man dates," but a chance meeting leads Peter to Sydney Fife (Jason Segel, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"), a laid-back, Rush-loving, man-Uggs wearing guy who somehow gets the uptight Peter to chill out and rock out in his converted garage.
Peter, the guy who used to make root beer floats (complete with chocolate straws) for Zooey and all her friends during their weekly get-togethers is now spending his evenings in Sydney's "Man Cave," getting drunk and discussing the intimacies of his and Zooey's relationship.
It would have been very easy for the movie to go in a totally predictable direction, but the homoeroticism is kept to a minimum, if it's there at all. Even Peter's homosexual man-date matchmaking brother Robbie (Andy Samberg) isn't stereotypical, a character choice that would have been so easy to make.
Of course, the movie isn't perfect. Peter meets Sydney and suddenly they're best buds? There's a catch, right? The moment where Sydney would be revealed as a con man, a creep, but it doesn't happen.
He has no discernible profession, no responsibilities and seemingly no cares in the world. We don't really know exactly what is up with Sydney Fife, but we know this: he is the ultimate dude. He also seems like little more than a plot device. We never find out who Sydney is, other than a laid-back dude who helps Peter unwind.
A cameo appearance by the muscled, deep-voiced Lou Ferrigno (former Mr. Universe and TV's Incredible Hulk) gets plenty of laughs. The movie is definitely not as crude or suggestive as it could be. There's an element of sweetness — Rudd plays the perfect, attentive fiancée, and Jones' Zooey just wants him to be happy (well, at first).
All in all, it's an entertaining 1 hour and 50 minutes.