Fun, uplifting & well balanced comedy !!

Rating: 8/10 (5 December 2010)

Paul Rudd is an actor who's movies I've always enjoyed watching, but I wasn't too sure what to expect of "I Love You, Man", teaming up with "How I met your mother's" Jason Segel. What I got to see though was a great comedy with a lot of heart!
I guess it just seemed to me that the concept of this movie was very easily going to lend itself to become the formula for a very generic comedy, but nothing could be lesser true! There were even times at which I thought the movie was going to fall into familiar traps and play out the usual "girlfriend feels rivaled by best-friend-card or similar", but "I love You, Man" continually avoids these traps and focuses more on the real problems "Peter Klaven" (Rudd) is having in dealing with the fact he has no real friends or buddies instead, and what happens when he tries his best to turn that around radically. That sets up numerous situations that are genuinely funny and also really make you feel for the "Peter" character.
A lot of credit for the above mentioned is also due to a great performance by Paul Rudd who does excellent in portraying a softy/nice guy who just doesn't seem to have the skills/feel to engage in your average buddy-comradery and finds himself struggling because of it. Segel also holds his own as the loose-as-a-goose-new-buddy and it's obvious that Rudd & Segel play perfectly of off each other and make the on-screen friendship work instantly.
Add to that an excellent supporting cast and what you have is a fairly original comedy that manages to tell a story of finding balance in a relationship/engagement and the friendships around it in a very humorous way without ever making either topic more important than the other.
Definitely a feel-good movie, definitely recommended!!