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It’s so easy to miss the essence of comedy which is to entertain. This is however not true with the new romantic comedy coming from Australia, I Love You Too. Its premise is set in a world where there exists love and marriage which evokes little in the way of amusement, romance or laughter. Blatant comedy reflects through the situations or conversations in the film but real laughter is uncommon. A huge part of the challenge that emerges alongside I Love You Too is that it feels far too comfortable. The central man Jim (Brendan Cowell) is a man-child who has great difficulties committing to long-term relationships, the central woman Alice (Yvonne Strahovski) is a spouse wannabe, and the central man’s best friend Blake (Peter Helliar who wrote the screenplay alongside) is a somewhat obnoxious loser, but a loveable one. These characters fabricate jokes that purely rely on gender norms, and they are extremely underwhelming and one-dimensional.
Cowell is a fantastic dramatic actor, as he once again proved in Beneath Hill 60, but he seems ill at ease with comedy. Strahovski is adequate as Alice but since the character primarily functions as something to be pursued, there is not much to work with. As Blake, Helliar just seems like a cheap imitation of Vince Vaughn’s character in Swingers.
The director Daina Reid, who has mostly worked on television until now, is clearly talented which is a good sign. I Love You Too is not a total write off. The addition of American actor Peter Dinklage (Death at a Funeral, The Station Agent) also elevates some scenes as he has the requisite comic timing that so many of the other actors fail to deliver. It is good that the jokes about his height are not constantly overdone and he does get some nice scenes. Another subplot with Jim’s sister is tedious and stretches the film’s length unnecessarily so that is a problem.
I Love You Too seems to have every element needed for a romantic comedy, but a blend greatly depends on how the writer incorporates the pieces into the film. In Australia, there seems to be a large push for creating generic films. While this is not a good reason to settle for mediocrity, it also serves as an explanation for why Australian audiences are so used to poor quality films.
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