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Vol. LXIII, No. 11
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
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Vol. LXIII, No. 11
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
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For more movie summaries, see Kam’s Kapsules.
OF COURSE I’LL MARRY YOU!: Zooey (Rashida Jones, left) doesn’t hesitate to accept the marriage proposal from her boyfriend Peter (Paul Rudd). The only fly in the ointment appears to be that Peter does not have anyone he feels close enough to ask to be his best man at the wedding. |
Peter (Paul Rudd) is elated when the love of his life, Zooey (Rashida Jones), enthusiastically and unhesitatingly accepts his marriage proposal. However, when they start to plan their wedding, Peter realizes that he doesn’t have anyone that he can ask to be his best man. It seems that, between his fiancé and his demanding job as a realtor, he’s simply had no time to make any close friends.
Since the wedding is imminent, Zooey urges him to find a best man. Peter turns to his gay brother Robbie (Andy Samberg) for help because he always seems to be surrounded by friends. With his sibling as a coach, Peter proceeds to go on a series of boy-boy blind dates in a frenetic search to find a close friend.
Unfortunately, this unorthodox approach to friendship proves disastrous, because each meeting turns out to be worse than the last. For instance, Peter discovers that Mel (Murray Gershenz), who he met via email, is actually an elderly retiree and is about 50 years older than the age he appears to be in the photo he emailed to Paul. Next, Lonnie (Joe Lo Truglio) is a diehard soccer fan who is only interested in attending Los Angeles Galaxy games. The final straw comes when Doug (Thomas Lennon) misunderstood the situation and planted a passionate goodnight kiss on Peter’s mouth at the end of a candlelit dinner in a restaurant.
Peter is on the verge of giving up, when purely by chance he meets Sydney Fife (Jason Segel) a foulmouthed misogynist who lives alone in a shack near Venice Beach. Sid is a crude boor who freely admits to going to open houses in upscale neighborhoods in order to find wealthy divorcees to seduce.
Despite their diametrically opposed attitudes towards women, the two hit it off and soon they’re hanging out together night and day. Suddenly Peter begins to explore his alpha male side as he realizes he is close to his last days of freedom as a bachelor. So he and his new-found best man have frank chats about sex, experience projectile vomiting, try choke holds, engage in golf slapstick, and so forth.
In the meantime, Zooey, noticing Paul’s changed behavior, wonders what happened to the sensitive man that she had agreed to wed. As a consequence, even before the day of the wedding, the burning question at the heart of this movie becomes “can this marriage be saved?” The film was directed by John Hamburg, who has brought us Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers and Zoolander.
If you have a stomach strong enough to withstand R-rated fare that is shocking and sometimes sublime, I Love You, Man is highly recommended, primarily because of the infectious camaraderie of co-stars Paul Rudd and Jason Segel as well as the captivating screen chemistry of Rashida Jones. Throw in a laugh-a-minute script expertly executed by a talented supporting cast which features Jon Favreau, Jaime Pressley, J.K. Simmons, Andy Samberg, and Jane Curtin; and you have all the fixins for a couple of hours of hilarious hijinks.
Don’t forget to check your political correctness at the box office.
Excellent (3½ stars). Rated R for profanity and crude sexual references. Running time: 105 minutes. Studio: Dreamworks Pictures
For more movie summaries, see Kam’s Kapsules.