Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011) Movie Review.

***This review contains spoilers.***

Love is all of these things at once - that is why a movie called "Crazy, Stupid, Love." succeeds as a romantic comedy. Okay, okay - that is only part of the reason. The ingredients for the success of this movie are irreverent comedy, razor-sharp dialogue, awesome imagination and great execution. In other words, the writers keep the love side hot, and the stupid side cool. No, really. 

Case in point: The divorce (AKA Crazy). As the movie opens, we see Cal and Emily having dinner together at a restaurant - a seemingly perfect scenario which rapidly degenerates as Emily asks Cal for a divorce after 20 years of marriage. On the way home from dinner, Cal rouses from his catatonic state and throws himself from the moving car Emily is driving. Despite the awkward moments presented at dinner and during the car ride home, we can see that the two still love one another. Cal (Steve Carell) is predictably upset, since we learn much later that his character has only had ONE sexual partner his entire life - his wife Emily (Julianne Moore). With the help of his pre-teen son Robbie (Jonah Bobo), Cal sets out on a ridiculous quest to win her back. That's just CRAZY. 

Get ready for the fireworks... (AKA the Stupid). This sets the stage for Steve Carell to sort-of reprise his bumbling-but-good-natured-and-somehow-sexy role Andy from The Forty Year Old Virgin. And... it works. Somehow.  This time, Steve has a wing man in Ryan Gosling (Jacob). Jacob quickly tires of cuckolded Cal's vocally incessant, divorcee whining at a local pick-up bar and decides to assist Cal the only way he knows how - by turning Cal into a misogynistic, promiscuous man-whore. Cal focuses on making himself more attractive to Emily, while Jacob focuses on making Cal more attractive to women. Any woman. All women. Every woman. While this premise of the movie - Cal's desire to reunite with Emily - is not ridiculous by itself, the way Cal goes about fulfilling this motivation is simply outrageous - and laugh-out-loud funny. 

Steve Carell mutates from a sexless eunuch into an oversexed gigolo in the space of 30 minutes. It isn't entirely believable, but it is quite entertaining - Jacob slaps Cal's face - A LOT, gets him into the gym, and browbeats Cal into buying a hip, new wardrobe. Meanwhile Robbie, wing man #2, guilt-trips Cal into trying to win his mother back. Unfortunately, Robbie has the hots for his much-older baby-sitter or nanny, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), who is in love with none other than Cal, her boss. Not to be outdone, Cal's older daughter Hannah (Emma Stone) falls in love with Cal's wingman-cum-mysoginist, Jacob, whom Cal begins to despise for "ruining" his daughter.


The resolution of the movie (AKA Love), is where its beauty truly lies. There are plenty of sight gags and one-liners to keep everyone entertained, but beneath all the hilarity is a gorgeous, messy painting which seeks to mirror the real world. I would not call this a typical "Hollywood" ending, but I was very satisfied with the way all of the dramatic threads of this film were deftly tied together. 

Does Cal eventually get Emily back? Do Jacob and Hannah live happily ever after? Does Jessica eventually return Robbie's affections? We are not given these answers - nor do we need them. We are allowed to play out the rest of the drama in our own imaginations - and sometimes it's just better that way. Loved it! 

- Chipper F. Xavier, Esq.