There’s every chance you’ve got the wrong impression about this movie, if you’ve seen or heard anything about it. The promos and trailers and even the poster might have you think this is something of a formulaic rom-com. If you’ve seen the trailer you will have seen the synopsis of Steve Carell’s ultra-unhip office worker Cal Weaver get divorced and then run into womanising legend Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling). From there Jacob gives Cal a new wardrobe, tips on how to pull ladies, and you’d be forgiven for thinking you know what this movie is from top to bottom.
Cal gets divorced, has a bromance with Jacob who teachers him how to be cool and sexy and meet lots of women until he realises that his wife (Julianne Moore) is really the one for him and wins her back. Happy ending. Roll credits. There’s every chance you think that’s pretty much what Crazy Stupid Love is all about.
Crazy Stupid Love is not that movie. It’s not slushy (OK, it's mostly not that slushy) and it’s not altogether predictable. Heck, it doesn’t really play too much for big laughs. What Crazy Stupid Love really is, actually, is a quirky indie movie that’s been dressed up as a rom-com to try and sell more tickets. It’s a shame – because this misrepresentation might put off people that would otherwise find it far more sophisticated and profound than they would otherwise expect.
Steve Carell probably gives the performance of his career so far as Cal Weaver. He’s adept at playing sad sack, likable losers – but here he invests that well-worn schtick with pathos and humanity. This is a man that has been married to Julianne Moore’s Emily for over twenty years – she is everything to him. So when she announces at the start of the movie that she wants a divorce his reaction is of quiet resignation, and then anger, and then finally remorse about how it was they lost his way.
You want sophistication? Consider when the two of them tearfully meet for a parents evening appointment, and Cal acknowledges that when he heard she wanted a divorce he shouldn’t have let her slip away and instead he should have fought.
Crazy Stupid Love handles this situation with a delicate touch. It's bittersweet, not bitter, not sweet. These are two soul mates that lost their soul and how, even if, they can ever get back isn't easily resolved, if it ever even can be. No answer is too contrite. Emily engages in flirtations with Kevin Bacon’s sleazy co-worker, yet all the while her and Cal retain a cordial affection rather than descend into arguments or rage. The film manages to sidestep every cliché you can think of whilst driving down territories of wrecked relationships you’ve known time and time again.
Yet the divorce of the Weaver’s isn’t the only plot on display here – it’s the main thrust of a three-pronged approach. Ryan Gosling’s Jacob is a dazzling entertainment on-screen. Fellas, you take your girl to this and you better concede to the fact that she is going to swoon in her seat before the finish at him; he’s charming, funny, and has a six-pack that one character rightfully remarks makes him appear “photoshopped”.
In truth he’s perhaps just a smidgen too sure-footed (as you’d expect, there’s an emptiness to his man who has everything facade) but you can’t help but enjoy seeing someone so sure, so adept, so witty. Just like all the women he manages to talk his way into bed with, Gosling will charm the pants off you - it's only a script that sells him short in the third act that leaves him feeling under-nourished.
Emma Stone’s Hannah is one such female he initially targets, but she has her own issues that we’ll follow before the path of crazy stupid love leads her back to Jacob, proving herself to be the chink in his armour. Again, hers is a character that dodges clichés. There’s a really nice scene between them when she agrees to go back to his place and is absolutely set on not being a “PG-13” version of herself only for the familiar patterns of more restrained romances to be neatly reversed.
The third plot involves Cal’s son, Robbie (Jonah Bobo) who is in love with his older babysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton – magnificently traversing her gawky awkwardness into an unlikely sex symbol). It’s the plot that perhaps mines the biggest, cringing gags and all plays into the tangled knot of dovetailing threads that eventually, out of nowhere, collide.
With its offbeat soundtrack and its tortured yet colourful characters, Crazy Stupid Love is practically a mainstream indie movie, but it’s definitely more the latter than the former. Indeed, it’s when the movie plays to broader comedy, or the kind of pratfalls Carell is better known for (his bailing out of a moving car near the start is one such mis-step that feels dumped in from another movie, enacted by one of Carell’s less-rounded characters) does it feel like it's undoing good work, but thankfully the movie mostly manages to stick to a credible and dignified tone.
The ensemble of players are all strong, with perhaps only Marisa Tomei’s hot but damaged goods teacher going a little too over the top and thus feeling a notch out of reach of the rest of the piece. But Crazy Stupid Love will be greatly enjoyed by anyone happening to wander in expecting nothing more than the kind of rom-com standard of a Sarah Jessica Parker or Kate Hudson flick. For those genuine indie movie fans, however, they’ve probably overlooked Crazy Stupid Love by figuring it to be another generic rom-com. Blame the promo material, it’s crazy, and you’d be stupid to miss a film that you very much might turn out to seriously love.
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