Loyola Greyhound

Issue date: 3/24/09 Section: Arts & Society

Media Credit: Photo Courtesy of filmnest.com Paul Rudd (left) stars as conservative woman's man who realizes he doesn't have a male friend close enough to be his best man. He then meets Jason Segal's character, and they become a bit too close with their seven-hour jam sessions.

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.

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