Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)

Genre

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Director

Glenn Ficarra | John Requa

Country

USA

Cast

Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Analeigh Tipton, Jonah Bobo, Joey King, Marisa Tomei, John Carroll Lynch, Beth Littleford, Kevin Bacon, Liza Lapira, Josh Groban, Crystal Reed, Karolina Wydra, Julianna Guill

Storyline

Cal (Steve Carell) and Emily Weaver (Julianne Moore) have the perfect life together... until Emily asks for a divorce. Now Cal seeks to rediscover his manhood with the help of a newfound friend, Jacob (Ryan Gosling), learning to pick up girls at bars.

Opinion

If you've been reading me for a while, you know usually I am not into romantic comedies, as nowadays they all look the same. After watching it for the first time, my reaction was that this film is one of the best romantic comedies of the past decade. Multiple views later, and lots romantic comedies later, I still think that way.

Though there is nothing Oscar worthy in it, Crazy, Stupid, Love. is a spectacularly funny, very entertaining, touching romantic dramedy.

The great writing by Dan Fogelman combines a team of interesting characters - each of them dealing with love - and an interesting journey at the discovery of the word love. In fact, the film not only speaks of love as a feeling, but it also tells every shade of it - I know it may seem like an already-seen thing, but I promise it is not - focusing on divorce, as the end of a feeling and the beginning of another - for example Moore's character asking for divorce, yet being jealous of her ex-husband as she finds out about his new playboy life.

The whole thing is enhanced by the spectacular cast. Steve Carell, which I usually find extremely annoying, finally portrays a human being, and he can act goddamnit - as he has also shown recently in "Foxcatcher". Ryan Gosling is not one of my favorite actors, and definitely not the reason I watched the film in the first place, but I cannot deny the fact that he is an astonishing actor, and he perfectly nails his character this time as well. The comedic chemistry between Carell and Gosling is quite impressive. Julianne Moore is wonderful as always, even though her character is much enjoyable. Emma Stone, one of my favorite actresses, is great as talkative Hannah, and her sarcasm fits the film perfectly. And the chemistry between her and Gosling is great. Analeight Tipton and Jonah Bobo well-play their teenagers infatuated characters. Marisa Tomei doesn't have much of screen time, but she does great as the alcoholic schoolteacher. Kevin Bacon, who plays Emily's co-worker and lover, is great too.

Quotes

Robbie: You wanna talk about The Scarlet Letter, Ms. Tafferty? All right. Well, the A they're both wearing - I think it stands for "asshole." Wanna know why? Because they fell in love and love is for stupid assholes. And this book is just about a bunch of assholes who fell in love, like assholes, then had to die, like assholes. I'm sorry about all the "assholes."