Monday, March 30, 2009
I Love You, Man: Male pattern badness
Posted by Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 1:47 PM
By Matt Brunson
I Love You, Man comes dangerously close to striking out before it even steps up to the plate. First off, the basic premise, about a guy who goes off in search of a male friend to call his own, sounds imbecilic even on paper. Strike one. And then there's the trailer, which, continuing an alarming trend these days, is cut in a shrill fashion to make the movie itself seem like a complete waste of time. Strike two.
But I Love You, Man avoids striking out by remaining true to its own good-natured core. Like most films in the Judd Apatow vein (the man himself wasn't involved with this project, but the principal players are all veterans of his works), it attempts to strike a desirable balance between sweet sincerity and risqué raunch. Yet perhaps more than any of the other films (Knocked Up, Superbad, etc.), it frequently pulls back when it reaches the edge of vulgarity. That's not to say the picture doesn't fully deserve its R rating: With its ample selection of crude language, no one will be mistaking this for Mary Poppins. But by focusing on the sweetest lead character since Steve Carell's 40-year-old virgin, the movie emerges as a possible date-night selection that both sexes can enjoy.
Read the rest of Matt's review here.
Watch the movie trailer here:
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