Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Crazy, Stupid, Love


Crazy, Stupid, Love stars Steve Carell as Cal, whose wife Emily (Julianne Moore) suddenly announces at dinner one night that she wants a divorce, and tells him on the drive home that she cheated on him with a co-worker (Kevin Bacon). Cal proceeds to move out of their house and starts spending a lot of time at a bar in order to drown his sorrows.

At the bar, he meets a regular named Jacob (Ryan Gosling), who is a ladies man and seems to take home a different woman every night. Because he feels sorry for Cal, and also because he is tired of him moping around the bar telling everyone about his separation, Jacob volunteers to help make over Cal and teach him tricks for how to pick up women, as he hasn't dated since he met Emily as a teenager. Cal finally works up the courage to speak to a beautiful woman named Kate (Marisa Tomei), and they end up going home together and having a one night stand.

Jacob also meets Hannah (Emma Stone), a recent law school graduate studying for the bar exam, who appears to be immune to all of his typical techniques to attract women. When her boyfriend does not propose to her as she expected, she finds Jacob and plans to have a one night stand, but they end up falling for each other and Cal ends up teaching Jacob about being a good boyfriend.

Further complicating things, Cal and Emily's son Robbie (Jonah Bobo) is in love with the babysitter Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), but Jessica has a crush on Cal. All of these love stories end up colliding hilariously one day when everyone ends up in Cal and Emily's backyard.

Crazy, Stupid, Love is not only funny, but very touching. There is a great scene where Emily calls Cal pretending to need help relighting the pilot light on the water heater, but in reality she is standing in the kitchen and just wants to hear his voice. Ryan Gosling has mostly been in dramatic movies, but he gets the chance to show his comedic chops in this film, and he is very funny as well as being a very good dramatic actor. Jonah Bobo was also very good, and this is just the beginning of his film career. Although this is definitely a "chick flick," there is something for both men and women to enjoy in this movie.

Rating: 5/5 stars

1 comment:

  1. I'd have to argue for 4/5 stars because of lack of believability. Possibly a bonus star for Ryan Gosling nudity. Yummy

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