I Love You, Man's gender reversal is fun. It's about a guy who gets the... guy. Peter just got engaged to Zooey, but he has no friends, really, not one. Too bad he can't drink. It's too bad he doesn't play poker. Sucks he's never attempted to hang out with his fencing buddies. And it's too bad he doesn't want to share his real estate commission with his electric, tan cubicle neighbor. He does, however, make milkshakes with chocolate straws in them. What a bro. This all makes his task of finding a best man to his wedding (Dammit, Rashida deserves one) pretty difficult. What ensues are a series of male blind "dates". Peter takes one of them to dinner, big mistake. And of course, like every love story ever told, Peter's man, Sydney, appears when Peter's least expecting, and they hit it off perfectly. Paul Rudd is fun to watch make up words to impress his buddy. It's like he's trying to impress the popular kids but looking more like a loser trying to. Paul Rudd and Jason Segel's chemistry feels like a man- woman love story, and it's fun to watch unfold. The only problem is Peter's real, heterosexual love is Zooey, and that's what makes forming two good, realistic relationships in a film so tough. After Peter and Sydney solidify their friendship the film feels like it's pretty much over. Get married, bring the ring, it's all good. Then the simultaneous break ups occur (Peter- Zooey, Peter-Sydney) and things start to feel fabricated and rushed. It's questionable how many, if anyone has dealt with a problem like this. And there's the feeling that John Hamburg wasn't too sure how it's supposed to go either. Zooey walks out briefly. I thought the $8,000 loan would be more of a problem. When you really think about it, there wasn't much reason for Zooey leaving at all. Over at the other relationship, Peter tells Sydney he doesn't want him at his wedding because he spent the loan on advertisements, advertisements that he was contemplating on getting into with his cubicle buddy. Things got too distant from me when seeing Peter and Zooey's wedding filled with Peter's failed blind dates and people who don't like him. (Jon Favreau is great in this film, btw) A couple of stupid set ups are added (the high pitch of your voice), characters were left for dead (the single chick) and nothing felt real anymore. Also, Sydney is just flat-out weird, in a cool way, but definitely not through a first impression. I think bromance in film works best when the emphasis is solely on that relationship (Pineapple Express to name one).When trying to make bromance and romance work in a film, Wedding Crashers is the undisputed king.
Review of I Love You, Man
