DVD Review: “I Love You, Man”

Rating: 73

“I Love You, Man” is a triumph of male-bonding awkwardness, a start-to-finish laugh marathon about a man who has no problem talking to women, but discovers by his mid-‘30s that he has no male friends. Realtor Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) is the perfect boyfriend to Zooey (Rashida Jones), but as they plan their upcoming wedding, he realizes there will be no groomsmen standing in tuxedos with him. So he goes on a series of disastrous “man-dates” in hopes of meeting a best friend — and a best man.

Then he meets Sydney Fife (Jason Segel of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”), a free spirit completely at ease with himself and his role as a guy. What could have been an awful “Man Show” exercise is more about learning to ease up, relax, rediscover what made Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” so great and empowering in middle school, and enjoy life as men. Director John Hamburg ensures that both sides of the gender divide get their due — female bonding is illustrated more realistically in “I Love You, Man” than in most comedies explicitly geared toward women.