Crazy, Stupid, Love is the latest in a trend of new romantic comedies that depict multiple lives moving along parallel planes and simultaneously experiencing the joy and loss of romance.
In this way, the film resembles the most famous of its type, Love Actually, although Crazy, Stupid, love focuses on a tighter group of individuals, a method that should simplify the film’s various lost connections, misunderstandings and misdirection, but, unfortunately, never seems to do so.
The film stars a great cast, which is initially what drew me to film. Julianne Moore is especially great as 44-year-old Emily, who after 25 years of marriage to Cal (Steve Carell) and three children, finds she wants more.
It’s her request for a divorce that acts as the film’s catalyst, pushing Cal into the world of dating he’d avoided by marrying in high school, thereby introducing us to Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a lothario who serves as wingman and teacher to Cal.
Sprinkled throughout the film are nuggets of comedy that are quite excellent, but equally present are missed opportunities for laughs. Crazy, Stupid, Love should have been a funnier movie and often times, seems bogged down by its romantic message: the idea of a one true love. A message, I ultimately could not get behind.
As is the way in these sorts of films, happy coincidences are aplenty, and while that’s fine, it’s the film’s insistence on a neat tie to all multiple threads and its hasty pairing off of characters before the end credits that makes the film fall flat and lose credibility.
Crazy, Stupid, Love is playing in US theaters now, and is dated for a UK release September 23rd.
Sarah McBride is a self-proclaimed pop-culture enthusiast. Her thoughts on music, film, lit and life can be found at sarahism.com. You can follow her on twitter @sarahism.