Paul Rudd is Peter Klaven, a successful real estate agent currently trying to "move" Lou Ferrigno's property and marry Zooey Rice (Rashida Jones), a florist with an up-and-coming business. Seems like amatch made in heaven, right?Unfortunately for Peter, Zooey has "tons" of friends and he has none, so when he proposesto her, an inequality is created in their potential wedding party. What follows is Peter'sdesperate attempt to find a friend, any friend, who might support him in the role of best man at the wedding.

I Love You, Man is a funny, sometimes entertaining, romantic comedy... for men. I did find it interesting that the movie is written, directed, produced, and (for the most part) played by men. The portrayal of Zooey's relationship with her friends is one where sex dominates entire perspectives, conversations, and lives. It's a commodity between some of the spouses, a powerplay amongst many, and much talked about regardless, except by Peter. What happens when Peter proposes is an uncomfortable (but funny) conversation on speakerphone between Zooey and her pals, all of whom have been in on the various ways that the new couple has sexually interacted thus far. Do women really give the play-by-play like that? It was like being in a varsity football locker room!

What follows is the uncomfortable "bromances" between Peter and a series of men who he "tries out." There's the gay man who thinks Peter's gay, the guy with the high-pitched voice which annoys Peter and all of the Galaxy fans, and finally, Sydney (Jason Segel) who speaks truth into the life of our sheltered Peter. Before I get too far, I must admit that the humiliation Peter feels comes as a mixed bag for me; we do need friends of the opposite sex to share those moments of our lives when we need friends who aren't our spouses or our romantic interest, but it doesn't make Peter less of a man (the way the movie implies) because he doesn't have any.

Sydney breathes truth into Peter's life. He's suave in a way that Peter hasn't been, and Peter's attempts to be suave are almost as off-putting as Jar-Jar Binks. Peter needs someone to see him as he is from the perspective of truth (even if it's a little off) but Sydney also needs someone who can show him that his life isn't complete with his frequent masturbation and one-night stands with divorcees. What in fact happens in I Love You, Man is that two men, one cool and one not, one floating through life and one grinding, one unfettered and one growing in relationship, end up learning that they need each other.

So, I Love You, Man has some good points then, but the list of complaints I find jar me from being too settled with it. What does it say about friendships between men and other men, or women and other women, when the opening salvo of being bound together is tales of sexual conquest? What does it say about friendship between men and women when sex becomes a currency for affection, power, and desire, or simply a matter of the first, second, or third date? For Peter and Zooey, how can there be equality when Peter is first pressed into finding a best man to please her and, once having found him, angers her by having someone who distracts his attention from being lavished on her?

Friendship could well be compared to the theories of When Harry Met Sally as portrayed by I Love You, Man. And while the first received critical acclaim and the second received popular positive reviews, neither one allows me the opportunity to say, "That's it! It explains platonic (or romantic) love to me!" Even this summer's The Proposal does a better job of explaining friendship and love, while tackling sexual extracurriculars and the romantic comedy genre, while talking about real friendship.

Real friendship, Jesus said, involved a person laying down their life for the other person. Real friendship involves sacrifice and placing the other person's best interest before one's own, displacing pleasure, sex, gossip, anger, and more from the deciding factor in decision-making. Even if I Love You, Man is funny and potentially sweet, it lacks the deciding moment when sacrifice enters the picture in a redeeming way, which leaves me wondering if it doesn't need a new title.

Maybe the sequel should be called I Like You A Lot, Man... Somehow, that just doesn't have the same ring to it.