I Love You, Man: I Loved the First Half-Hour

As usual for American comedies, "I Love You, Man" has a great first 30 minutes and then flattens out substantially.

In my crowded theater, there was a lot of laughter early on, mine included. But in the second half of the movie, the jokes fell so flat that you could have heard a pin drop in the theater. "I Love You, Man" is also a bit long for a comedy (110 minutes). Alas, even comedy directors suffer from the problem of being reluctant to edit.

It's disappointing because there are many aspects of this film that are fantastic.  It especially has the phenomenal Jason Segel, who became a household name last year after starring so memorably in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (which he also wrote, incidentally).

The central concept of "I Love You, Man" is also brilliant: a humble thirtysomething named Peter Klaven (played with a bit too much understatement by Paul Rudd) realizes on the eve of his wedding that he has no male friends. He has no one to be best man. He doesn't even have much of a relationship with his brother (played by Andy Samberg).

Peter embarks on a quest to find male friends, and the film turns into a sometimes-hilarious send-up of the bonding rituals of contemporary straight men. But not every scene is satirical. The film is also a tender-hearted celebration of love between guys. Director John Hamburg, who also directed "Along Came Polly," in many places uses conventions of the romantic-comedy genre to great effect. When Peter asks guys out, he hems and haws like a girl. It is adorable. Finally straight-male filmmakers are revealing the truth, that straight men sometimes get smitten with each other. When Peter tells his brother that he's scared to call one particular guy, the brother responds, "It's because you really like him." And that's the truth.

There are the obligatory scenes involving confusion between bromance and romance. Peter gets tongue-kissed by one guy at the end of their man-date, which is supposed to produce guffaws. But by and large, the film gives off a gay-positive vibe. Peter's brother is gay, for example, and is portrayed as highly likable and more at ease with his masculinity than most straight guys. The film also by and large likes women, which is nice to see. When Peter discovers the unique pleasures of male friendship, he does not begin to despise women. This new breed of male-driven comedy that was largely created by Judd Apatow (who surprisingly had no involvement with "I Love You, Man") may focus on heterosexual males, but there is a palpable fondness for women and gay men. If there's any type of person this genre hates, it is macho, homophobic straight men.

The central bromance is between Peter and Sydney, who is played by Segel. As charmingly chubby as he was in "Sarah Marshall," Segel once again finds a way to make man-boobs look sexy. Here he plays an unmarried free spirit who teaches the straight-laced Peter to rip his clothes off and bark at the moon. As is often the case with straight men in real life, the two bond especially around rock music, jamming together in Sydney's bungalow on Venice Beach. There is one hilarious scene where they go to see the band Rush and sing and dance together with great abandon.

The film tries to get a bit serious in the end, but the shift from comedy to dramedy does not work. Hamburg and co-screenwriter Larry Levin are not able to deepen the story as they seemed to want to. I think they basically ran out of ideas after the goofball comedy was finished. The film does hold one's interest and is worth seeing, but it's not the comic masterpiece I was hoping for. "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is the better film. 

The first 30 minutes of "I Love You, Man," however, are so good and original that the movie will likely become a favorite among non-macho straight guys everywhere. And I see no problem with that.