A
Chick Flick for Dudes
By Bruce Collier
April 2, 2009 Issue
John Hamburg’s
I Love You, Man has many of the trappings of a garden-variety
chick-flick, not the least of which is that it starts with a marriage
proposal and ends with a wedding. What fills the in-between is
generally amusing, at times charming, though slightly marred by
a nagging strain of adolescent film clichÈs—unnecessarily
vulgar language, bathroom humor and two instances of projectile
vomiting. It’s as if Hamburg really wanted to make a grown-up
romantic comedy, but felt he had to throw something in to keep
the target demographic interested.
Paul Rudd plays Peter
Klaven, a struggling real estate salesman trying to break into
the millionaire’s club by selling Lou Ferrigno’s house.
He’s doing it all to make a start for himself and his fiancee
Zooey (Rashida Jones). An overheard remark makes Peter realize
he has no male friends to stand up with him at the ceremony. His
gay brother guides him through the intricacies of “man-dating”
for heterosexual friendship purposes. After a few funny false
starts he meets Sydney Fife, a sloppy, free-spirited financier
with whom Peter can unlock his buttoned-up self and have some
guy-fun. In no time, Peter is hooting like a frat boy, scarfing
fish tacos and beer, and playing air-bass to the rock sounds of
Rush (the band makes a cameo appearance). Zooey is at first delighted,
then jealous. And that’s the movie.
Segel reminded me of
a young Gerard Depardieu. He shambles through life, refusing to
clean up after his little dog, the eternal adolescent our girlfriends
wish we’d get over. Rudd is a born straight man, slipping
back and forth between responsible behavior and goofiness, desperate
to please everyone. It took me some time to figure out whether
Zooey is supposed to be the one for Peter, or whether I was supposed
to like her at all. I’m not sure the screenwriters were
always sure. Lou Ferrigno has some funny moments as himself, the
classic B-list celeb. J.K. Simmons and Jane Curtin are funny,
though underused, as Peter’s parents.
I Love You
Man is something of a new genre, a “bro-mance.” I
expect lots of spin-offs. It’s actually two comedies of
manners—one crude and formulaic, the other witty and occasionally
insightful. I liked the second, but feel free to enjoy both.
SUDOKU
THE MOVIE
Director Alex Proyas is known for brooding, eccentric films (The
Crow, Dark City, I, Robot). Knowing, his latest
effort, is one of his best. Despite the heavy criticism Nicolas
Cage has been getting recently—deservedly so for films like
Bangkok Dangerous—he manages to turn in an endearing and
engaging performance as an MIT professor who gets his hands on
an ominous and prophetic letter. Though the film's ending will
likely keep audiences talking for years to come, it is the fantastic
CGI disaster scenes that are the heart and soul of this ominous
science fiction thriller.
Cage plays John Koestler,
a college science teacher who is still in mourning over the recent
death of his wife in a tragic fire as he struggles to raise his
partially deaf son. When the elementary school his son attends
unearths a 50-year-old time capsule, the boy gets his hands on
a bizarre piece of paper that contains nothing but rows upon rows
of numbers. When John analyzes the numbers, he finds that they
are actually the dates of every major disaster of the last half-century
and their death tolls. To make matters worse, there are a few
disasters that have yet to come true. John makes it his personal
mission to thwart these tragedies.
Even if the
plot sounds a little farfetched—think Sudoku for Nostradamus—the
disaster scenes alone are worth the price of admission. These
are the most haunting and horrific scenes of destruction since
Independance Day back in 1996. Though the story gets a bit convoluted
at times, the overall experience of Knowing is exciting and wildly
entertaining.
- Adam Pope
CHANNELING
HITCHCOCK
Duplicity stars the gorgeous duo of Julia Roberts and
Clive Owen as corporate spies who outwit everyone around them.
But are they playing each other? That’s the question threading
its way through this fast-paced romp that catapults you around
the world and back and forth in time.
Writer-director Tony
Gilroy (Michael Clayton) makes Roberts and Owen even more beautiful—if
you can imagine it—by bathing the two in a sort of golden
glow with the couple in sharp focus against a fuzzy (and unimportant)
background. And in a scene near the opening of the film, Gilroy
practically channels Alfred Hitchcock as he circles Owen standing
in the middle of Grand Central Station.
Gilroy’s script
captures the crisp dialogue of classic movies with Hepburn and
Tracy or William Powell and Myra Loy. At times, the warp-speed
exchanges between Ray Koval (Owen) and Claire Stenwick (Roberts)
leave you a little light headed, as do the bedroom scenes. The
sexual chemistry between these two actors—first seen in
Mike Nichols’ Closer—continues.
The supporting characters
in are finely drawn and give the movie some of its best comedic
moments. The movie’s first scene—fisticuffs between
warring CEOs Tom Wilkinson (a Gilroy favorite) and Paul Giamatti—will
have you laughing before the opening credits end. Carrie Preston,
playing a naive southern woman who succumbs to the charms of Owen’s
character, has a brief but memorable scene with Roberts.
This film keeps you
on your toes and a little unbalanced until its plot twist of an
ending. Some may find Duplicity confusing at times, but it certainly
lives up to its title.
- Lisa Worsham
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