TL;DR –.  While it is showing its age in places, it revels in the chaos of the moment and the power of relationships.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no Post-Credit Scene

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this film.

Crazy, Stupid, Love Review –

I have been sick this week, and what I tend to do is fall back into that realm of comfort films to help me get through it all. For me, that is the Ever Afters and the 10 Things I Hate About Yous. But I was chatting with some friends about what their go-to comfort films are when one of them pointed out a blind spot: Crazy, Stupid, Love. I knew of the film, and I am sure that it got memed for a good reason. Well, what do you do when you discover a blind spot? Well, you shine a light on it, and that is what we are doing today.  

So, to set the scene, we open a very nice restaurant where couples share in the joys of love, well, almost all of them. Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) just asked his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) what she wanted, only to discover that the answer to that question was a divorce. This is just the start of what is a disastrous night for the Weaver family. But out in LA, Jacob (Ryan Gosling) might just be having a typical night as he makes a pass at Hannah (Emma Stone, but fails, but that is fine because Jacob takes a crack at nearly everyone in the bar. Later that night, Jacob sees Cal self-destructive in a bar after being dumped by his best friend. He finds pity for the man in ill-fitted clothes and decides to teach him how to talk to women.    

Crazy, Stupid, Love is a film that only works because they perfectly cast the leading roles. Steve Carell absolutely fits in the two roles they need of him, going from shlub to player and then something better, maybe. I think I do have a lot of his filmography that I have yet to watch, and this might be the push I needed to fix this. Emma Stone is in her full-Rom Com era and absolutely nailing it. She has absolutely fantastic chemistry with Ryan Gosling, and I am sure that is something that won’t come up again. Julianne Moore does get a bit pigeonholed here, but she makes it work.

Where the film works, the best is when it oscillates wildly from awkwardness to chaos. Quite a lot of this film is a slow burn punctuated by these moments, the first of which was Cal doing a barrel roll out of the car because he could not stand being in that conversation for one moment more. Or what happens when you have to do a parent-teacher interview with your ex? There is always that inherent awkwardness from relationship breakdowns, especially if feelings are still there, people start taking sides, and lives get upturned. Part of this would have hit a lot harder if you hadn’t known that moment towards the end was coming, but it still works because the cast nails it.

While it might only be just over ten years old, you can sort of feel it is from a different era at times, and because of that, parts of the film have not aged particularly well. I think we have a bit of a better sense around unhealthy and healthy relationships that I believe is lacking in places here. Some parts of Robbie’s (Jonah Bobo) storyline move it very much into a creepier territory today than how people respond to it in the film. There are also some issues around consent that the film does not quite capture constructively.      
  
In the end, do we recommend Crazy, Stupid, Love? It was a fascinating film at times, and it is clear that the cast threw themselves into the roles. While not all the film has aged, as well as some of its contemporaries, I still had a blast here, and some moments deserve the legacy they have created. If you liked Crazy, Stupid, Love, we would recommend to you Anyone But You.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Crazy, Stupid, Love?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Crazy, Stupid, Love
Directed by – Glenn Ficarra & John Requa
Screenplay by – Dan Fogelman
Music by – Christophe Beck & Nick Urata
Cinematography by – Andrew Dunn
Edited by – Lee Haxall
Production/Distribution Companies – Carousel Productions, Di Novi Pictures & Warner Bros Pictures.
Starring – Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Bacon, John Carroll Lynch, Josh Groban, Lio Tipton, Jonah Bobo, Joey King, Beth Littleford, Julianna Guill, Liza Lapira, Crystal Reed & Mekia Cox
Rating – Australia: M; Canada: PG; Germany: 12; New Zealand: M; United Kingdom: 12A; United States: PG-13