Crazy, Stupid, Love [Review by Haus]

Crazy, Stupid, Love is a fantastic movie. It’s funny, it’s ambitious, and it’s a pleasure to watch.

Here’s what you already know from the trailers: Steve Carell and Julianne Moore split up after a long marriage, and Carell — a total square, of course — gets ladykilling lessons from suave lothario Ryan Gosling. Much hilarity is to be had as Carell drops a few grand on his wardrobe, gets made over, and slays some babes. But Moore is his soulmate, you see (promise, it’s all in the trailer!) so he’ll clearly end up putting his reinvented self to use winning her back. Right?

More or less. That’s the bare bones plot, or at least one of them. In actuality this film plays more like Magnolia or Love Actually, with several distinct but ultimately intertwined storylines. I won’t give them away here, but all of them focus in varying degrees on love (often imbalanced, though not always unrequited) and each is rewarding in its own right.

Carell and Gosling are surprisingly strong together and Carell’s transformation at Gosling’s metrosexual hand is a treat — though its spend-to-improve mythos obviously won’t seduce many anti-consumerists. (Carell’s makeover is what Larry Crowne tried so hard to do. Here, it’s done right.) On a personal level, the way this film first establishes and cements, then unseats and ultimately upends the Carell-Gosling relationship is delightful.

It’s also a comedy, and there’s some true comedic gold in these hills. The male leads in particular pan for it semi-regularly — you’ll like what they find.

I have to say though, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone utterly steal this movie. They share a small chunk of time getting to know one other in act two, and their date — which begins as superficial tail-chasing and evolves into emotional pair-bonding — is sweet, beautifully shot, lovingly acted, and positively electric. It’s hands down the most uplifting and inspiring part of this film. You know the feeling (or at least I hope you do): that supercharged pre-honeymoon phase when perfectly matched partners first click together. It’s among the most complete emotional experiences available, and it’s portrayed so very well here. While these two were together I forgot Steve Carell’s character even existed. No joke. It’s like a film within a film.

And that’s something that Crazy, Stupid, Love does a lot of, actually: there’s just a lot going on. The scope is ambitious, especially given that any one of its tales easily would carry a lesser movie. This “when in doubt, add more stories” approach can be disastrous (e.g., Valentines Day) but bullets are dodged here and everything works pretty well.

Complaints are few. Kevin Bacon pops up occasionally with Skeletor cheeks to widen once more his personal collection of sixth-degree slaves in the afterlife. Marisa Tomei is equal parts sexy and cute in a too-brief turn as Carell’s first win. (That’s my complaint: that it’s too brief.)

I’ll confess also that I’m getting a bit tired of the rom-com fiction that if you’re dumped or rejected and still love your ex, you should never give up on her because she’s your soulmate and she’ll take you back in the end. I can say from experience that my friends at least consider that to be very unhealthy behavior and have tended, I think rightly, to dissuade me from it when the situation arose. If someone doesn’t want you, they’ll probably want you even less if you start stalking them professing your undying and unrequited love. That said, I guess the real-life alternative — de-friending them on Facebook, drinking a lot, and sulking until you’re over them — doesn’t make for very good rom-coms, but there you go. I wish at least one film would let its characters walk away from their alleged true loves as real people so often must do.

But that’s not this film’s fault. Crazy, Stupid, Love is well paced, funny, and supremely entertaining. Oh, and it totally takes its pants off. Believe me, “crazy” is in the title for a reason.

This film, like Midnight in Paris, made me thoroughly happy like a wirehead rat. Sure, it ends up a bit more ensemble-ish than you initially might expect, but it’s a wild and worthwhile ride. Give it two hours, ten dollars, and your attention. It will deliver.

HAUS VERDICT: Crazy, actually not stupid, loved it.

See what the other half thinks: Parsi’s view.