Crazy, Stupid, Love follows the story of several couples with the main focus being on Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) and his struggle to accept his divorce from his wife (Julianne Moore). Cal goes into a downward spiral and is fount in a bar by a womaniser (Ryan Gosling) who takes a liking to him and offers to teach him how to pick up women. Within a month or so Cal is able to pick up women and his life seems to be going great, except for the fact that he still loves his wife. Emma Stone stars as a Lawyer who is in a dead end relationship with someone she doesn’t really want to be with, but is there out of comfort. The story often focuses on how Cal’s wife Emily is coping with the divorce and her relationship with the guy she cheated on her husband with. Finally there is Jessica, the Weaver family babysitter who has to fight off her urges for Cal and also fight off Cal’s son’s affections towards her.
THE ACTORS
Steve Carell is always great in his roles and always manages to bring whichever character he is playing some heart and soul without sacrificing his comedic timing and delivery. It does however feel that he is always typecast, but he suits the role so i have no major complaints.
Ryan Gosling is the complete drastic opposite of his character in Drive, save one aspect, Jacob doesn’t like to talk about his feelings. Gosling is surprisingly funny, charming, witty and is able to keep up with Carell, which is a hard task.
Emma Stone is always great, playing a strong yet vulnerable woman who just wants to find love. Stone proves yet again that she is one of the funniest comedy actresses in Hollywood but also has a range beyond comedy roles.
Everyone else is superb, funny and well cast, however Gosling and Stone completely steal the movie for me as they are just so good without even trying.
THE DIRECTORS
Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, this is a brilliant film for directors with only one other movie under their belt (I Love You Phillip Morris). Some of the shots featuring Gosling in the first half of the movie just give you a feel of how much of a bad boy his character is, one particular shot with him at the mall is particularly impressing. The lighting surrounding Marisa Tomei to set up a joke is superb and honestly i didn’t notice until the pivotal scene how they did it. Ficarra and Requa didn’t try to make the backgrounds and the scenery look beautiful, they concentrated on the characters and the camera angles to get the right shot just to show a simple dialogue scene is extremely impressive especially nowadays where a lot of comedy directors try to make the location look beautiful but forget about the characters.
LAUGHTER FACTOR
I laughed, giggled and smiled through almost the whole movie. It has the warm feeling of an Indie movie, especially with it’s non-Hollywood ending. Which i find to be a great achievement to have an amazing cast fit snug together. The scenes between Gosling and Carell are truly some of the funniest parts of the film.
CONCLUSION
Crazy, Stupid, Love is a very funny, heartfelt romantic comedy with a difference, it is very hard to predict the end because as much as you love these characters, you want them to be happy, but you realise it might not work out. There is a slight bit of a pacing issue in the middle but it is nothing of major complaint. I fall in love with Emma Stone more and more every movie. Ryan Gosling is superb. Carell is Carell. You should give this movie a shot, not the funniest movie of the year, but definitely worth your time.
MY SCORE
7.5/10