Crazy Stupid Love wastes no time getting to its premise. We meet married couple Cal (Steve Carell) and Emily (Julianne Moore) as they are having dinner in a restaurant. When Cal asks Emily what she wants for dessert, she quickly blurts out "A divorce"....and then proceeds to let Cal know that she has been sleeping with another guy. At this point, Cal's life is turned upside down. He finds himself separated from his high school sweetheart, the only woman he has ever loved, and their children. Cal tries to blend back in with society but he hasn't dated since high school and he is not exactly the most "smooth" guy in the bar. It's here where Cal meets Jacob, the ideal womanizer, who seems to go home from the bar every night with a different woman of his choosing. He can say just a few words and women fall head over heels for him. He is the exact opposite of Cal. Jacob is played by Ryan Gosling, an actor I'm only familiar with in a few roles but I can already tell he's one of the best actors going today. There's just something about him that he owns the screen whenever he is on it. I've enjoyed him in Ides of March and Blue Valentine and I have heard is performance in Drive is superb as well, so that movie is definitely on my radar. 2011 has been his breakout year and what a year it's been. As for the character here, his Jacob finally gets Cal comfortable talking to ladies and Cal is able to score a night with Kate, played by the very funny (and oh so beautiful!!) Marisa Tomei. They have a great night together which knocks Cal's confidence through the roof and he is soon courting a different woman each night, just like his "teacher" Jacob.
It's here where the movie could easily fall into a few standard storyline traps and become just another film in a myriad of raunchy, brain-dead romcom stereotypes. But Crazy Stupid Love proves it's smarter than that and has more to offer. Underneath the comedy here is a movie with actually a pretty good message about soul mates and finding the perfect person. Everyone has that soul mate out there and you never know when or how you will meet them. It also questions that if they are truly a soul mate, how hard will you fight for them when things aren't perfect. I enjoyed this third act of the film when we slip into drama a little bit more but the film doesn't stop being funny. It toes the line carefully and in the end I feel it really worked out. The honor for doing that goes to the screenwriter, Dan Fogelman, and directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. They realized they had something here and didn't ruin it. Kudos to them.
Crazy Stupid Love is not a perfect film, it has its flaws for sure. But compared to many other films of its like, I really enjoyed it. So many movies like this fail to make me laugh. This movie succeeded there, I laughed quite a few times and there were a couple of really great scenes. Marisa Tomei isn't on screen much but when she is she is simply a delight and has some of the best comedic moments in the movie. Gosling is at his best in the first half of the movie when he is working with Cal. He shines as the ultimate womanizer without being obnoxious, that's hard to do in a role like this. Emma Stone, Analeigh Tipton and Jonah Bobo are all young actors who give supporting performances worth of recognition. I don't really want to go into what each of their roles are because there is actually is a slight twist in the movie and I don't want to ruin it. I thought it was pretty funny and I want the viewer to experience it for themselves. Steve Carell and Julianne Moore both give decent performances. Neither is at the top of their game, but they do just fine in the starring roles. While not perfect, Crazy Stupid Love is 2 hours of your time which shouldn't be offensive and you may find some good laughs, as I did. It's a nice surprise and I'm glad I saw it.
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