Review: Crazy Stupid Love

I had the chance to catch the press screening of "Crazy Stupid Love" last Thursday (August 11,2011) at Power Plant Mall thanks to Pinoyexchange. You will also see this review at Pinoyexchange's Official Movie Reviews thread.

Crazy Stupid Love showcases an array of characters with their own love issues building up a strong story that resonates to everyone’s (mis)adventures with this crazy stupid thing we call love.

Cal (Steve Carell) and Emily (Julianne Moore) married early and had been together since they were in high school. Cal got the surprise of his life when during a dinner Emily drops a bomb: she wants a divorce. And to make matters even worst, Emily revealed that she slept with her co-worker David (Kevin Bacon). Cal immediately moves out of their home and spent several nights in a bar where he randomly talks to strangers about her failed marriage and this got the attention of Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a womanizer who also frequents the same bar to seduce ladies. Jacob offered Cal to “train” him on how to be a better man whom ladies would salivate for. As Cal slowly transforms to become a ladies man, Jacob then faces off with Hanna (Emma Stone), a woman she tried to hit on before but didn’t bite however she comes back later on to challenge him. While his parents deal with their breakup, Cal and Emily’s 13-year-old son Robbie (Jonah Bobo) is suffering from an unrequited love to the family’s long-time babysitter, 17-year- old Jessica (America’s Next Top Model’s Analeigh Tipton) who in turn is harboring a secret feelings for Cal!

The movie’s strength is the cast as they deliver knock out performances while playing each other’s off smoothly. Steve Carell did a great job as the movie’s anchor as he was able to mix comedy and drama very well. Cal will say some funny stuff about a situation he is in but despite the humor you could still feel the inner emotional turmoil he’s experiencing. Cal’s emotional moments never went overdramatic yet Carell pulls off a suffering man amazingly. Moore is also great as a woman undergoing a midlife crisis but make no mistake as Moore was also as good in the comedic scenes as well. Carell and Moore complemented each other and they give realistic portrayal whose marriage is on the rocks.

Women will definitely swoon over Gosling while men will find Stone’s charms irresistible. Their story is just secondary to Cal and Emily’s but the “game changing” moment that Jacob and Hanna shared was electrifying and raw. That scene was effective thanks to Gosling and Stone’s remarkable performances and sizzling chemistry.

Jonah Bobo’s Robbie is this movie’s scene stealer and while kids playing “wise beyond their years” had been done a lot of times already, Bobo manages to play Robbie with such innocent poignancy and sweetness that you just can’t help but root for the little guy.

There’s a major scene in this movie where everything comes in full circle and I advice everyone not to read the movie on Wikipedia or IMDB for it could spoil that particular moment. The movie did follow a predictable path towards the end but while there’s nothing innovative about it, Crazy Stupid Love is still one of the better romantic-comedies that graced the wide screen in a while and is definitely worth the ticket.

***

Crazy Stupid Love opens in the Philippines on August 17.