COMEDY

The brotherly-love or ‘bro-mance’ genre that Judd Apatow developed and mainstreamed with Knocked Up and Superbad shows no signs of running low on testosterone, with I Love You, Man picking up where last year’s equally acerbic Role Models left off. The trick of the modern ‘bro-mance’ is that the energy that traditional lovelorn protagonists used to expend on trying to charm women is now firmly re-directed towards bonding with their male friends.

Despite successfully getting engaged to Zooey (Rashida Jones, daughter of music producer Quincy), real-estate agent Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) feels the lack of a balancing male companion, and after an excruciating series of man-dates, finally clicks with boorish alpha-male Sydney Fife (Forgetting Sarah Marshall’s Jason Segel).

After bonding over a covert wind-breaking incident at Hulk-star Lou Ferrigno’s house, the two men finally make their manly connection while listening to Rush albums in Fife’s man-cave, but their sense of brotherly love soon overshadows Klaven’s potential romance with Zooey.

Even without Apatow’s direct influence, the patented formula for fresh, feel-good filth still hits the spot under the smooth direction of John Along Came Polly Hamburg. Segal provides an ideal comic foil, a brash ball of alpha-male energy whereas Rudd is, as always, buttoned-down thinking personified. Throw in laugh-out-loud cameos from JK Simmons and Andy Shamberg as Klaven’s dad and brother respectively, and I Love You, Man’s best moments hit the heights of an accomplished character comedy.

General release from Fri 10 Apr.