A fresh breath of air to the relationship movie

Rating: 9/10 (29 May 2009)

We all know that Hollywood seems to have the originality of a spastic Xerox machine;in other words,find a successful formula and there'll be about eighteen different takes or copies of it lying in wait. Never does the dearth of originality seem to raise its big old ugly head than in relationship movies,sometimes called romantic comedies or "rom coms". Even when different angles seem to be explored,they still come to the same,tired wrap-up that involve the cute major players,boy and girl,to find love in each others' arms despite the obstacles. Every once in a while,I'm relieved to say,you do run across a film that decides to mine the margins of these love stories to make a movie.
I submit to you I Love You Man,made with the sensibility--and at least two members of the stable of actors--of a Judd Apatow/Greg Mottola film,and VERY appreciated.
Peter Klaven(Paul Rudd,the nicest,most likable mensch in movies and TV today,with a punum you could just....)is a reasonably successful Real Estate agent in Southern California whose engagement to Zoe(Rashida Jones,the girlfriend from Heaven)couldn't be going better. They're very much in love and she gets his silly,sometimes lame persona and he appreciates her patience and physical receptiveness. Everything's going well for their impending connubial bliss,save one thing:Peter has no guy friends. None. While Ol' Pete has a great touch with the ladies,he has almost no bro bonding to fall back on.
This previous situation,once not considered a problem if even considered at all now weighs upon our hero,and he gets help(both solicited and not)from family--Mom(Jane Curtin)and bro(Andy Samberg)--and from fiancé herself. The phrase 'hilarity ensues' is overused but,in these instances,they apply.
Then walks into an open house Sidney Fife(Jason Segel,physically the same from Forgetting Sarah Marshall,but character-wise a near one-eighty),an investment broker whose own,self-actualized sense of zen and bro-supreme self-sufficiency hits it off perfectly with Peter,balancing the groom-to-be's pleasant but feminine recessive qualities.
Featuring a supporting cast that doesn't try to stand out but still does: Curtin,Samber,J.K.Simmons(as Peter's dad),Tom Lennon(as a potential guy friend "suitor"),Sarah Burns(as one of Zoe's more pathetic friends),Jaime Pressly(as Zoe's perpetually angry married friend),Jon Favreau(as Pressly's dickish husband)and Lou Ferrigno(as...well,Lou Ferrigno),this film has a delightful time bringing to screen a "love" story angle that is as fresh,real and relatively ignored in most movies starring(pick any two of the following):Matthew McConaughey,Kate Hudson,Sandra Bullock,Meg Ryan,Hugh Grant,Ryan Reynolds,Renee Zellweger,Richard Gere or Reese Witherspoon. Co-writer John Hamburg directs this film,and he seems to be perfectly fine with letting this film amble along to its conclusion,scattering more than its share of laughs and pratfalls along the way. If this isn't love I felt for this fine film,it certainly with a fine affinity,nay a mild infatuation,I felt here...man(you HAD to know THAT was coming).