I Love You, Man [EB]

[Written by Erasmus Brock]

My sister brought me to one of those free pre-screenings last night, of I Love You, Man. It was around the quality that I've come to expect from the string of Judd Apatow spin-offs (i.e. Apatow's not involved, but actors from his movies are and the style's similar) we've been seeing lately.

There are a satisfying number of laugh-out-loud moments, plentiful evidence that the ex-Apatow actor (in this case, Paul Rudd) is a talented improviser, and an Apatow-like interest in real people and their behavior. But, like the other spin-offs, it's a pale imitation of the real thing.

For example, the characters' behavior is more plot-driven and less consistent in its degree of plausibility. Apatow strays from reality, but it's for a reason, and he sets rules and sticks to them, allowing us to suspend disbelief, relax, and get carried away by the plot and characters. These guys, on the other hand, just get less realistic when it helps them to pull off a gag or make the plot work, so I keep getting reminded that I'm watching a story that was written by someone.

Also, it feels stripped-down compared to Apatow's stuff, which is rich with funny/interesting character details that aren't essential to the plot (like Seth's childhood drawings in Superbad), as well as, when Apatow's at his best (though certainly not always), substantive subplots (the Superbad cops' relationship with McLovin) and minor characters who, despite being non-essential to the plot, are three-dimensional and reveal something real about human nature (the conflicted nightclub bouncer in Knocked Up). This movie instead sets a premise — a guy who's always had girlfriends but not man-friends suddenly has to make a friend — and follows it humorously, period. Any revelations about human nature are strictly confined to that idea, and the characters' personality details exist only to serve the plot or make a gag work.

So, enjoyable though the movie is, it's still just a little kid trying to be like his grown-up brother.