I Love You, Man (DVD, 2009, Canadian)

After years of swiping scenes from the leading men in such movies as KNOCKED UP and THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN Paul Rudd finally headlines a star vehicle of his own. Unlike those Judd Apatow productions it's John Hamburg (ALONG CAME POLLY) who directs I LOVE YOU MAN albeit with many of the touchstones of Apatow's highly successful freaks-and-geeks-with-heart aesthetic. In other words this is not an Apatow film but with the male capacity for--and simultaneous inability to express--fraternal love as its core comic conceit (and emotional centerpiece) it may as well be.Rudd plays Peter Klaven a real estate agent with a blossoming career and an imminent marriage to Zooey (THE OFFICE's Rashida Jones)--basically he's lucky in all things except male bonding. The narrative arc centers on his quest for platonic man-love--as opposed to say finding the girl of his dreams--and follows the boilerplate dictates of a standard rom-com with a subversive wink. In this case boy meets boy boys bond over their common love of Rush and Andre the Giant boys break up and make up etc. Rudd and co-star Jason Segel (FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL) a fellow Apatow alum who plays Sydney Fife the Type B object of Klaven's affection imbue their roles with winning charisma and elevate the plot with real and nuanced chemistry. With a whip-smart pace the film continually tills fresh comic ground as Hamburg finds punctuation points in every scene and never lets a gag overstay its welcome. While the supporting cast features many memorable turns by the likes of Jon Favreau Jaime Pressly and Andy Samberg I LOVE YOU MAN ultimately belongs to Rudd who approaches insecurity and social awkwardness with the same dead-eye marksmanship that Peter Sellers did for slapstick.