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I Love You, Man
inoffensive, inessential
2009
Review: March 28, 2009
Director: John Hamburg
Starring: Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg
Up to you.
THE SETUP:
Engaged guy realizes he has no male friends, ends up with one, learns self-confidence.
DISCUSSION:
There’s been a new thread of male relationships in movies, the “bromance,” which is where guys really like hanging together and are devoted to each other, though of course don’t lick each other’s dicks. It’s been a theme through recent popular comedies like Superbad and Pineapple Express, and perhaps because of the prominence it’s been receiving, this movie, which brings the bromance concept front and center, was born. So what happens to this idea, once the underlying homoerotic content becomes the main focus?
The movie begins with Paul Rudd as Peter proposing to his girlfriend, Zooey. She immediately calls her friends, during which Peter discovers that she has told them several intimate details about their sex life. Peter has dinner with his family, including his gay brother, Robbie, who is best friends with his dad. They discuss how Peter’s friends have always been female. Then he goes home to overhear his wife and her friends discussing how it’s a little weird that he has no male friends—he’ll be too clingy—and the wedding party will be very off kilter with tons of bridesmaids and no groomsmen.
So Peter begins to feel that he needs to get a male friend, stat. Then follows a series of “dates” with various guys, including one gay fellow, Doug, who tries to kiss the oblivious Peter after their dinner. One day at an open house [Peter is a struggling realtor], he meets Sydney Fife, an outgoing and somewhat noxious person who’s honesty and lack of pretension he finds charming. So a few days later, he calls Sydney and asks him to hang out.
By the way, in here Robbie tells Peter how much he likes married straight guys, and handily picks one up right as they’re talking at the gym he works at.
So Peter and Sydney have drinks and end up eating dinner together, getting drunk and having a great time talking. A lot of humor, which is somewhat more strange than funny, has to do with Peter trying to say cool offhand things and failing miserably. They hang out again the next day, and Sydney takes Peter back to his place, which has a garage that is the “guy room,” with three TVs atop each other, musical instruments and posters for the group Rush, bongs, and a masturbation center. They continue to hang and get along, and when Peter goes home, Zooey and her friends get excited when he gets a call from Sydney, and one of them says “Peter’s got a boyfriend!”
By the way, this movie is brought to you in part by Apple, who managed to outfit all the characters with iPhones that receive much loving attention, and, along with iTunes, gets mentioned by name. Soon theaters will be outfitted with seat-back devices that print a coupon when products are mentioned on screen.
SPOILERS [BUT NOT REALLY] > > >
So there has to be some conflict, right? Peter invites Sydney to his rehearsal dinner, where Sydney makes a speech to the whole table encouraging Zooey to give blow jobs to Peter. On the way home, Zooey is appalled that Peter told Sydney this, and is reminded that she tells all her friends the intimate details of their sex life. Anyway, she starts to become a little creeped out by Sydney and how much time Peter is spending with him, culminating in her briefly going to stay over with her friend. During this time Sydney asks Peter to borrow $8,000 for a really good investment, and here’s where you start to think—okay, Sydney’s going to start getting really weird and clingy now. Peter is cautious, but ultimately ends up giving Sydney the money. Then Sydney attacks Peter’s client for considering a different realtor, and soon Peter tells him he wants to take a break from seeing him.
Turns out the $8,000 was to buy astonishingly tacky billboards advertising Peter as a realtor—and they, against reality, end up giving Peter’s business a huge boost. Peter and Zooey are about to get married, and she finally calls Sydney to come for him. Peter and Zooey are at the altar when Sydney arrives and they have their big reconciliation—at the altar—and the movie ends.
< < < SPOILERS END
It was perfectly genial and very good-natured. One doesn’t laugh very often, but it’s pleasant and brims with good feeling. There are only a few times where I started to think “Why wasn’t this part cut?” However, after a few minutes’ reflection it becomes apparent that the whole thing is quite loose and wan. The main issue—Peter’s not having any male friends—is not so much of an issue, it’s just trumped-up to make a movie about it. But the real problem is that since we are supposed to ultimately like and support Sydney, he can’t be TOO much of a boor, can’t be TOO damaging or obnoxious, and this limits the comic possibilities of the movie. You keep expecting him to wig out or make an insane demand or become a real drain on Peter, but he never does. This leaves the impression that nothing really happens in this movie, and when the conflict comes, it is quite clearly JUST because it’s time to have some conflict. Again, perfectly pleasant and genial, and completely inessential.
As for the homo stuff… surely you will recall your life having been forever changed by my Function of the Fag essay, which posited that in movies with macho main characters, the implied homosexuality is deflected off them and onto outrageously stereotypical gay characters on the periphery. This movie serves as an example of the opposite case: when the gay content is out in the open, all of its excitement is completely deflated. The jokes about Robbie being gay and picking up straight guys aren’t very funny and aren’t given much prominence in the movie. Comments like “Peter has a boyfriend” are just matter-of-fact and don’t generate much energy. Even the ending—in which Peter and Sydney are telling each other they love each other right at the altar of a wedding—is completely deflated of edgy resonance. Just an example of how when the homoerotic content is in the foreground, all the excitement it generates when it is hidden or a source of shame is muted.
Overall, amusing enough, decent way to pass the time, not really funny but good-natured and pleasant, etc. There’s really no reason to see it.
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
If you want, it’s amusing and inoffensive.
