CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE.
Directed by: Glenn Ficara and John Requa
Written by: Dan Fogelman
Starring: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Analeigh Tipton, and Jonah Bobo
Love, adore, cherish, and treasure. These are all words that can barely begin to describe how I feel about CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE. In the film, the stories of three couples intertwine to form one fantastically funny and poignant romantic comedy. Note to romcom screenwriters: This is how all movies should be!
Fortysomething, straight-laced Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) has a dream life – a good job, nice house, great kids and married to his high school sweetheart. However, somewhere along the way, he’s taken these things for granted. When Cal learns that his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), has cheated on him and wants a divorce, his world turns upside down. Cal, not having dated in decades, stands out as the epitome of uncool – awkwardly blathering on about his wife leaving him to anyone who’ll listen. Spending his evenings sulking and frankly embarrassing himself at a hip local bar, sad sack Cal is taken on as wingman and protégé to handsome playboy Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling). In an effort to help Cal regain his manhood and make his wife rue the day she cheated on him, Jacob opens Cal’s world to the rules of picking up women and a sense of style not found at Supercuts or The Gap.
Cal and Emily of course aren’t the only ones looking for love in all the wrong places; Cal’s thirteen year-old son Robbie (Jonah Bobo) is in love with Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), his seventeen year-old babysitter who also has a major crush of her own… on Cal! And even Jacob’s world is flipped upside down when he tries his best lines and fails on Hannah (Emma Stone), a girl who makes quite an impression on him as she’s the first woman who crazily challenges him at his game. (Jacob’s strike out with Hannah is the film’s only weakness – Hello! It’s Ryan “the pantywhisperer” Gosling!)
Funny, witty and charming, the film also excels in its quiet moments. After Emily’s divorce revelation and his move into an apartment, Cal’s concern for the tending of the family’s backyard – a metaphor not lost on viewers – is played both comedic and tender. Carell proves here (as he did in DAN IN REAL LIFE) that he’s extremely adept at finding the poignancy surrounding the comedy. The simple but powerful moonlit gardening scene – in which Cal gazes upon Emily from outside, she fakes an “emergency” to call him, and he realizes he’s got a chance to win her back – brings me to tears as I write this. Cal’s yearning is palpable and Carell delivers the goods. His heart-to-heart with Emily at parent-teacher night (which is immediately followed by a funny twist), and the unplanned speech he makes at the end of the film are all moments you’ll be reaching for your Kleenex. All this and I haven’t even mentioned Ryan Gosling’s shirtless scene!
CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE is Directors’ Glenn Ficara and John Requa’s most polished, adult and commercially accessible work to date. Having sunk their teeth into dark comedies like BAD SANTA and most recently the underrated I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS, LOVE marks a sort of softening for the darkly cynical team. This comes courtesy of the mind-blowingly brilliant script by Dan Fogelman (BOLT, TANGLED), who I’d love to personally thank (and hug) for writing this warm and witty love letter. In poorer hands these characters would have come across as unlikeable jerks, but Fogelman makes every character – including the philandering wife and “the other man” David Lindenhagen (whose name becomes a running joke) – three dimensional and completely endearing.
CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE serves as a heartfelt and humorous reminder to believe in the power of love. Once you have it, never become complacent about it, and if you’ve lost it, never stop fighting for it.
