Crazy Stupid Love is the story of love, infatuation, marriage and family and what can happen if you let life pass you by and don’t keep up with it. Cal and Emily Weaver have been married for almost twenty-five years and after a blip in their marriage leading to divorce proceedings, Cal is shown a whole new world of living the single life when he meets serial womaniser Jacob Palmer in a bar. A poignant romantic comedy with a twist, get ready for Crazy Stupid Love to enchant you with some hilarious scenes and funny one-liners.
The Plot
Cal (Steve Carell) and Emily Weaver (Julianne Moore) started out as high school sweethearts and have been married for almost twenty-five years. As the years have passed, the spark in their marriage has all but died out. Cal however, content and oblivious to the lack of passion in their marriage is stunned to discover that his wife has been unfaithful when one night, she confesses her indiscretion to him.
As Cal moves out of the family home with divorce proceedings looming, he is devastated that he didn’t see it coming and spends his time drinking vodka cranberry’s in a bar, whining to anyone who will listen about his failed marriage.
Then in walks Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling), serial womaniser, charmer and all round ladies man. His only goal in life is chat up women and take them home. Jacob sees Cal’s despair and offers to help him sort out his life and regain his manhood by teaching him the tricks of the trade.
With Jacob’s help, Cal becomes the unlikely charmer, but run-ins with the wrong women and taking advice from his young son Robbie (Jonah Bobo), Cal comes to realise that only person he will ever love is Emily and he needs to do anything he can to win her back.
Meanwhile Emily has started moving on and tries to date the man she cheated with, David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon) from her office. David is hopelessly in love with her but Emily can’t help but feel that things are not quite right with him.
In a rather complicated love triangle, young Robbie Weaver has become infatuated with his babysitter Jessica (Analeigh Tipton) while she unfortunately is secretly in love with Robbie’s father, Cal.
As for Jacob, life’s a ball but when on one of his nights chasing women he approaches Hannah (Emma Stone) a beautiful and smart girl that is under-appreciated by her career driven lawyer boyfriend. Hannah combats Jacob’s flirtatious advances and goes home alone. But circumstances change and Hannah decides to see where a night with Jacob will take her and soon serial womaniser Jacob is confronted with the dangerous realisation that Hannah could be the one turning his whole perspective on life upside down.
With more complicated love triangles than you can shake a stick at, how do we really know if it is love or just infatuation? Who will make the leap of faith to be with their true soul mate?
The Thoughts
Crazy Stupid Love was a laugh-out loud romantic comedy with a very interesting and different story line it kept the audience guessing, even with the twist in the plot. It also had more heart than your average run of the mill Hollywood RomCom making it quite a poignant and complete story.
With a solid cast and well thought out plot, Crazy Stupid Love is likely to win praise from viewers and critics alike. Although the script was not perfect, this was more than made up through the excellent acting and complex story. Steve Carrell (The Office, The 40 Year Old Virgin) is usually known for his comedic roles, however a series of roles in emotionally touching films such as Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and Dan In Real Life (2007) have proven that Carrell is a gifted actor that can do both slapstick and serious. It is refreshing to see him in more serious roles as we are shown Carrell’s versatility across the board in this film.
Academy award nominated Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine, The Notebook) is on the other end of the spectrum with this being his first comedy role. Normally seen in serious dramas with edges of dry dark humour, Gosling shows that he can easily play ‘that guy’ that others do so well and far too often. His role choices are integral to the success of his career so far. Carefully picking his roles and directors to work with, I personally do not think Gosling has made a bad film yet. So many actors are capable of playing the Jacob Palmer role (the other Ryan, Ryan Reynolds being one of them) but few possess such a range as Gosling to perform well in other, more serious genres. Gosling also appears in Drive (2011) this year, his first action film and again produces an outstanding performance.
As for the leading ladies and supporting roles.
Seasoned actress Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right, The Hours) as Emily Weaver finds herself in a less strenuous part than usual. Though the role required a fair amount of emotion, I felt this character barely touched the surface of what Moore is clearly capable of and I look forward to seeing her in other, more serious roles in the future.
Similarly, up and comer Emma Stone (Zombieland, Superbad) provides a good supporting role and her acting style complimented the other characters well. She has the endearing look of the girl next door, which is a refreshing change from some of the Hollywood stars of today. Her next movie The Help (2011) coming late October will test Stone’s acting prowess in a powerful film discussing the racial relationships between white and African Americans.
For the ladies, it is academy award winner Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler, The Lincoln Lawyer) who gives a short but stand out appearance. Her character Kate, the desperate lonely school teacher, out the on the prowl for a man, finds herself as Cal’s first experimental flirt and initially winds up more offended than charmed. Tomei has some of the best dialogue and laugh-out-loud scenes and absolutely steals the show for the girls, as Gosling does for the boys, though not forgetting some great lines from Jonah Bobo (Zathura) as the young, but wise Robbie Weaver whose infatuation with Jessica the babysitter (Analeigh Tipton) provides some light hearted humour and makes you remember back to when you were that age and fancied someone so much to the point that you thought it was love.
The story itself brings up interesting questions as to what is love compared to infatuation and explores the journey that we must go through in order to fall in love and stay in love.
Not your average RomCom, Crazy Stupid Love will sweep you off your feet. A RomCom that’s actually genuine for once, it’s funny but touching at the same time. See it now, better yet, buy it when it comes out (if not just for the Gosling shirtless scenes!)
The Film Buzz Review Rating: 7.5/10
Cinema Release Date: 23rd September 2011
Directors: Glenn Ficarra & John Requa
Writers: Dan Fogelman
