“Crazy Stupid Love” is not the usual contemporary rom-com, instead opting to take on adult relationships and lifestyles. The contrived, soap opera plot weaves in and out of comical and heartfelt times interspersed with sorrow and pathos as portrayed by an ensemble cast of stellar actors. In a familiar characterization, Steve Carell plays Cal Weaver, a forty-ish family man whose wife Emily (Julianne Moore) of twenty-five years announces she wants a divorce. Shaken up, especially when she’s been unfaithful with another (Kevin Bacon), a sorrowful Cal hangs out at a bar where he meets yuppie Jacob Palmer (charismatic Ryan Gosling), a professional pick-up artist. Pitying Cal, he decides to give the feeling-sorry-for-himself shlub a makeover to be a cool, singles’ swinger. The interlude offers some off-the-wall scenes including a wacky sexual encounter with a sorely underused Marisa Tomei.
Glenn Ficarra and John Requa(“I Love You, Phillip Morris”) direct Dan Fogelman’s screenplay overloaded with distracting subplots. Additional cast includes Emma Stone as a prospective lawyer who doesn’t fall for the hunky ladies’ man. Jonah Bobo is touching as Cal and Emily’s thirteen-year-old son Robbie professing love for his seventeen-year-old babysitter (Analeigh Tipton) who’s hung up on an older man.
image source: rama screen
