Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)

Crazy, Stupid, Love is a reminder that there is nothing wrong with the romantic comedy as such. The genre has become so overpopulated with half-baked efforts that it’s easy to forget how fun they can be when done well. After all, many a “rom-com” was written by people with names like Shakespeare, Austen, and Wilde. Crazy, Stupid, Love doesn’t play in those leagues, of course, but it does rise above the herd of “date movies” thanks to above average writing and acting. This is genre done well.

The plot, as to be expected, concerns a set of people who all move through various combinations of the states listed in the title (and that is a list, right, given those commas?). The most time is spent with Cal (Steve Carell), whose wife Emily (Julianne Moore) tells him at the end of a dinner date that she wants a divorce. She’s had an affair with a co-worker (Kevin Bacon), and sees this as a sign that things are over. Cal is floored, but decides to give Emily what she wants. Back at home, Cal and Emily’s 13-year-old son Robbie (Jonah Bobo) is pining after his 17-year-old babysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), who herself has a crush on Cal. Also in the story’s orbit are Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a smooth ladies’ man, and Hannah (Emma Stone), a witty law student who’s the one girl that won’t buy Jacob’s lines. The crushed Cal starts drinking in the bar Jacob prowls, and, after one too many nights of overhearing the sad-sack man’s drunken laments, Jacob decides to teach Cal how to re-enter the dating pool. Meanwhile, both Robbie and Jessica up their games to try and woo the objects of their crushes, and Jacob and Hannah wonder how their meeting might have gone differently.

How all these plotlines ultimately come together is best left for you to discover, as the movie has a few silly but satisfying surprises up its sleeve. Are they ridiculous? Yes, but not more so than those dreamed up by the authors mentioned in my first paragraph. It is to the script’s great credit that none of the characters here are idiots, as is often the case in these films. They make ill-advised choices from time to time, but they are allowed to be real, thinking, people. They have motives beyond the necessities of the plot: Emily is restless, Cal is well-meaning, Robbie is romantic, etc., etc. Even the Bacon character is seen to be a pretty stand-up guy put in an odd situation. Crazy, Stupid, Love also steals a page from the Scream playbook by letting the characters in on the jokes of the genre (Cal, as the skies open up on him after a bad moment, sighs, “What a cliché…”). Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have resumes including Bad Santa and I Love You, Phillip Morris, so they know a thing or two about going for the unconventional. That sensibility goes to good use here, spicing up the usual romantic formula. With a heavier hand, some of the behavior in the movie (especially Jacob and Cal’s in pick-up mode) would be downright off-putting – but the directors keep it light. It’s also worth noting that not everything gets tied up as neatly as in some lesser comedies – the happy endings are not over the top here.

What really helps elevate the film, though, is the casting. Cal is the kind of guy Carell can play with ease, equal parts amusing and annoying, silly and charming. He’s believable as the frumpy dad and as the “retrained” serial dater, and lets us see when Cal realizes he’s gone a little astray. Emily is also the sort of role Moore handles well, and, though she seems to recycle some schtick here (enough with the stammering and teary expressions, already!), she’s a fine foil/match for Carell. Stone is plenty spunky as Hannah, and Bobo and Tipton are wonderfully earnest and awkward teenagers. It’s Gosling who’s the ringer here, though, perfectly embodying both Jacob’s bravado and his real emotions when they surface. Gosling has range; this is a guy I last watched play, in Lars and the Real Girl, a man who literally couldn’t stand to be touched, and yet he seems perfectly natural here as a Don Juan type. I was left wanting to seek out more of his performances. An especially nice supporting turn comes from Marisa Tomei as the first of Cal’s post-break-up conquests. It’s refreshing to see a romantic comedy peopled with real actors, doing real acting. Credit writer Dan Fogelman with giving them mostly good things to say (and really, who hasn’t thought what Robbie thinks of The Scarlet Letter?).

Crazy, Stupid, Love isn’t a perfect movie. It feels a little long, and some parts of the timeline are hard to follow. It is, however, a reminder of how fun this sort of movie can be when there’s real talent and thought involved. It’s also blissfully low on outright raunch in this post-Apatow/Hangover age. More crazy and less stupid makes this movie pretty easy to love.