I Love You, Man

It's hard not to think of Judd Apatow while watching I Love You, Man. The players are there, including Jason Segel, who has been with Apatow from his Freak-y beginning. And like Apatow's Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, this film's script skillfully sweetens up its raunchy humor with moments of genuine tenderness. But Apatow's name is nowhere to be found; instead, I Love You, Man arrives courtesy of John Hamburg. He's rightfully not the brand name that Apatow is (his last major screen credit was the awful, sweaty-Phillip-Seymour-Hoffman-filled Along Came Polly), but a scan of his résumé does prove a connection: he directed a few episodes of the Apatow series Undeclared.

Apatow film or not, I Love You, Man is a great comedy that had me giggling throughout, from its high-minded reference to Anwar Sadat to its wealth of jokes about oral sex. The supporting cast, from a hilarious Thomas Lennon to a joyfully jerky Jon Favreau, are nearly perfect, but the film is carried by Paul Rudd. Normally a supporting character, Rudd gets top billing here, and he does it without recycling any old tricks. His I Love You, Man character, Peter Klaven, isn't the one making the jokes--or at least not the good ones. For all his awkwardness, he's usually the butt of the humor, but he's never unlikable. In this comedy, his goal is to find a best man for his upcoming wedding to Zooey (The Office's Rashida Jones), a task that leaves Peter sweating. A few unsuccessful man-dates in, and Peter is ready to throw in the perspiration-filled towel. But then he meets Sidney (Segel), and their friendship begins to follow all the romantic comedy rules, which provides a lot of the fun. From decades of watching Meg Ryan and Katherine Heigl movies, the audience knows exactly what to expect, but I Love You, Man at once follows and subverts the conventions of the genre with hilarious results.