Rated
PG-13 (Coarse Humor, Sexual Content and Language)
Running
Time: 1 Hour & 58 Minutes
Cast:
Steve
Carell-Cal Weaver
Julianne
Moore-Emily Weaver
Ryan
Gosling-Jacob Palmer
Emma
Stone-Hannah
Marisa
Tomei-Kate
Kevin
Bacon-David Lindhagen
Analeigh
Tipton-Jessica Riley
Jonah
Bobo-Robbie Weaver
Liza
Lapira-Liz
Beth
Littleford-Claire Riley
John
Carroll Lynch-Bernie Riley
Josh
Groban-Richard
Directed
by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa
 |
| It's okay, Steve Carell, you are just as good-looking as Ryan Gosling. |
Romantic
comedies tend to suffer from predictability as Hollywood often times recycles
the same stories with some slight alterations but the endings are always the
same. Call me a jaded cynic but these films espouse a notion of love that’s all
naïve fantasy and has little basis in reality but that’s exactly the reason
mainstream audiences continue to embrace the genre. Color me surprised when I
discovered that “Crazy, Stupid, Love” manages to avoid such a pitfall—for the
most part. While its script suffers from pacing issues in handling the ensemble
cast and the ending is the usual Hollywood saccharine fluff, “Crazy, Stupid,
Love” explores its themes in a manner that feels more honest by not
sugarcoating the fact that love takes a
lot of work. The likable cast also helps elevate the film by providing a
good balance of laughs and melodrama.
Cal (Steve Carell) and Emily Weaver (Julianne
Moore) have been married for twenty-five years but during an awkward dinner
date, Emily drops a bombshell by announcing she wants a divorce. On the car
ride home, Emily admits to sleeping with another man, an accountant in her
office named David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon), and in response, Cal leaps out of
the car to avoid having to listen anymore. He says to Emily that he will leave
and will sign all the papers. Devastated, Cal goes to the same bar lounge every
night and speaks to random people about how his wife cheated on him while
getting drunk on cranberry vodka. A suave ladies man named Jacob Palmer (Ryan
Gosling) approaches Cal and bluntly explains that the reason he lost his wife
is that he lost sight of who he is as a man. Jacob offers to help him
‘rediscover his manhood’ and although Cal is hesitant, he agrees. Over the next
couple of weeks, Jacob gives Cal a makeover and lets him observe as he
approaches women and seals the deal. Feeling he is ready, Jacob sets Cal loose
and he successfully scores with a wild middle-school English teacher named Kate
(Marisa Tomei). Unbeknownst to him, Cal becomes a participant in a love
triangle between his seventeen-year-old babysitter, Jessica Riley (Analeigh
Tipton), and his thirteen-year-old son, Robbie (Jonah Bobo). Meanwhile, Jacob meets
a redhead named Hannah (Emma Stone) who is immune to his charms and discovers
that he’s falling in love with her, something he never expected.
The themes of
“Crazy, Stupid, Love” is reflected in its title. Love drives people to do
stupid and crazy things but it also requires effort as complacency and routine
will cause every well-meaning romance to dry up. This is the reason that Emily
cheats on Cal as the passion that once burned bright when they were younger has
flamed out. The script never favors one over the other nor does it apologize
for their actions, an honesty that I appreciated and grounds the characters. With
three interconnected storylines, the film never meshes together as well as it
should with its problematic pacing where one couple (Cal and Emily) is focused
on for a large amount of time, leaving the other two subplots feeling like
disconnected tangents rather than an integral part of a whole. There are also
some plot contrivances where all the major characters find themselves in the
same room with each other simply through random coincidence. As befitting a
romantic comedy, the final message it imparts, where one’s quest in life is to
find their soul-mate and work towards building a life together, felt clichéd. The
ending is a little too saccharine for my taste but it does earn it thanks to writer Dan Fogelman’s more thoughtful
approach to its characters, which prevents them from becoming mere caricatures
to be made victims of easy, manipulative sentimentality. We actually do want
these people to find happiness at the end.
The ensemble cast of “Crazy, Stupid,
Love” is certainly the film’s strongest element because they’re all depicted as
well-meaning people who make mistakes. Steve Carell can play the bumbling
everyman in his sleep by now and has a knack for perfect comedic timing even in
the most melodramatic of moments. Chemistry is important in a romance film and
he and Julianne Moore have that in spades. The two really do feel like a couple
who’s been together for a long time and love one another very much but discover
that they’ve taken each other for granted, falling into a routine bereft of
passion. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone could’ve felt like they were thrown in to
appeal to younger audiences but while their burgeoning relationship is not
afforded as much screen-time as it should, the two remain immensely likable in
their roles. Gosling himself is a surprise as Fogelman gives his character subtle
hints of a more soft and innocent side to him, that there’s something deeper
than the ladies man image he projects to everyone. Analeigh Tipton and Jonah
Bobo serve to emphasize the crazier and stupid acts when people find themselves
caught up in their feelings, although I found Bobo’s Robbie to be slightly on
the creepy side with his constant professions of his love for Jessica despite
being rejected repeatedly and even admitting aloud that he was masturbating while thinking of her!
Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei have relatively minor roles but Tomei makes the
most of it with her crazed antics. At one point, Cal describes her as ‘the
perfect combination of sexy and cute.’ I’m inclined to agree with him. There
are several laugh-out-loud moments, some of which are already spoiled by the
trailers and while the script never quite succeeds in balancing its disparate
storylines, the comedy does manage to gel perfectly with the more dramatic
moments in the film, providing some much needed levity. Some of the jokes do
fall flat, such as a repeated mispronunciation of someone’s last name that just
ends up tiring when it crops up for the umpteenth time.
Released on July 29,
2011, “Crazy, Stupid, Love” has received largely positive reviews with 73% on
Rotten Tomatoes. Critics concluded that ‘it never lives up to the first part of
its title, but [the film’s] unabashed sweetness—and its terrifically talented
cast—more than make up for its flaws.’ The competing films are Jon Favreau’s
genre mash-up “Cowboys & Aliens,” based upon the Platinum Studios graphic
novel of the same name and “The Smurfs 3D,” based upon the comic strip created
by Belgian artist Pierre Culliford aka Peyo. “Crazy, Stupid, Love” won’t be
reaching number one at the box office this weekend but it should do solid
business with $15 to $20 million. The audience was, not surprisingly, skewed
female and couples and enjoyed the film. While it does not completely escape
the trappings inherent in the romantic comedy genre, “Crazy, Stupid, Love”
manages to rise above them as the characters are more well-rounded and honest
in their emotions as opposed to being the clichéd archetypes that plague such
films. If you find yourself turned off by the myriad action flicks and raunchy R-rated
comedies currently in release, “Crazy, Stupid, Love” is a recommended alternative.
Final
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
“She’s
your soul mate, right? Go get her back.”
Posts
