There are certain actors who can just brighten up your day no matter what the circumstances. No matter who they play, what kind of film they are in, no matter the circumstances of the performance, when they appear on screen audiences just smile and smile and smile.
They aren't people like Christopher Walken or Johnny Depp, who are skilled chameleons that can play just about anything. They are those guys whose presence is just effortless, and no matter how hard they try, they just can’t escape their own natural likability. Jack Black is such an actor, now Jason Segel is too.
Jason Segel: A Star is Born
It is Segel’s presence alone in I Love You, Man that elevates it from a routine romantic comedy into something special. Before Segel steps on screen the film is simply spinning its wheels, but when he appears, it's straight smiles to the end with a couple of big laughs thrown in along the way. This is a funny guy.
That was also the case with Segel’s first starring role in last year’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and even as the guy around the edges of Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up, he announced his presence with every perfect line of dialogue.
An Actor's Comfort Zone
Maybe it’s that Segel knows his range and is comfortable working within it. In Forgetting Sarah Marshall and now here he plays the kind of guys that everyone wants to be around but no one would ever actually want to be.
Maybe that’s why audiences like him so much. He’s a free spirit, attached to nothing or no one. You’d never want to lead his life because it is one of childishness and has no particular structure or motive other than to relax and always have a great time, but he’s kind hearted and one kind of has to admire him for living out every childhood dream they've long given up on in the quest into adulthood.
Introducing Sydney Fife
That’s Sydney Fife in a nutshell, who becomes best friends with realtor Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) after he becomes engaged to his girlfriend Zooey (Rashida Jones) and realizes he doesn’t really have any male friends, or at least not any who he’d feel comfortable enough asking to be part of his wedding party.
That’s basically the set-up, as Peter, who has always related more to women, tries desperately to make friends. He is set up by his gay brother with men who “get the wrong idea,” meets people from the internet, and even tries to join a poker night with some men that ends up, well, a bit of a mess.
But then Peter meets Sydney at an open house for Lou Ferrigno. Sydney doesn’t want to buy the house, just to stop by for the free food and the divorced women, who are perfect for him because they don’t want commitment, just to be comforted for a night or two, if you see what he means.
The Best Man
Peter appreciates Sydney’s honesty and begins to admire the man for being everything he has never had the nerve to be.
Soon Peter is playing hooky from work, stopping by Sydney’s “Man Cave” to jam out most of Rush’s back catalog and lounge around all day talking about, ya know, guy stuff.
For the first time in his life Peter has found the perfect friend, a man who brings out everything in him that he has suppressed all these years and Sydney also gets a dedicated new friend when all of his others seem to be growing up and getting on with their lives.
The Romantic Comedy Routine
It’s inevitable that a subplot will develop about Zooey’s concern that Peter is spending far too much time with Sydney and not enough time with her, but the film handles this quickly and with care, never letting it get so big that it consumes the narrative.
Even when the script begins to feel like it is going to throw a dramatic curveball, as when Sydney asks to borrow money for an investment he can’t tell Peter about, it never stoops to the level of plot contrivance.
Verdict
That’s about it. The film is nice and likable and filled with lots of funny scenes and performances. Paul Rudd, although a usually compelling dramatic actor can sometimes feel like he’s trying too hard in comedic roles, but here he doesn’t outreach his grasp, playing Peter as a that loveable clueless puppy dog type. Lou Ferrigno himself puts in a funny scene at a diner and J.K. Simmons (Juno’s dad) manages to be one of the few actors who can make every line sound like a punch line.
The film itself, at its heart is basically just a routine romantic comedy and story about men bonding. It’s not a great film by any means but it gets the job done well enough and knows enough when to move on. It doesn’t operate on the same level that Forgetting Sarah Marshall did. It’s not as sweet and knowing, but it does have Jason Segel and really, that’s all it ever needed.
