Cal does well, but despite it all, is determined to win back his wife, both for himself and to prove to his son, Robbie, that soulmates exist. If it sounds pretty corny… well, it is! But it is nevertheless still a decent two hours at the movies. It pretty much did exactly what I expected of it and its success rests entirely on its cast. With a different set of actors in place it would more than likely have been a duffer. But charismatic performances from Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling, aided and abetted by the ubiquitous Emma Stone, Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon, Marisa Tomei and many others make for a flick that starts to exceed the sum of its parts.
It’s not going to change your life, and it is most definitely overlong. But there are some funny moments along the way and it is an enjoyable if thoroughly undemanding 2 hours. (NOTE: from here on in, there are some mild spoilers!)
However, there are some minus points earned. The ending, for starters, is dreadful! Make no mistake, it is turgid, saccharine, vomit inducing dreck. I’m not averse to a happy ending in the slightest, but the horrible graduation ceremony finale of this movie was just completely and utterly cringeworthy.
Additionally I really am not sure what sort of message it was trying to convey when it essentially boils down to approval of some very creepy stalker behaviour. By making Robbie a hopeless romantic, persistent in the face of total discouragement, and the declaration that he is making the object of his affection uncomfortable, it seems to be treading on some very very thin ice in regards to the meaning of the word “No”. You might think that such a light and breezy film as this should not be scrutinised by cold hard reality, and perhaps that is true; but this is a mainstream Hollywood film and by having Jessica (Analeigh Tipton) reward Robbie at the end with some racy pictures, it seems that the filmmakers are flat out condoning some exceedingly unsavoury behaviour.
More often than not, that ought to be enough to direct this film straight to the bin. But overall this film wins through on the strength of its principle cast. There are some great moments - Cal’s awkward first encounter with Marisa Tomei’s unhinged primary school teacher; Gosling’s tutoring of his protégé, a couple of genuinely funny one liners and a really rather well executed and unpredictable story twist. At the end of it, although there were certainly elements that I strongly disliked, I mostly walked away having had a decently enjoyable couple of hours in the movies. It’s Saturday night date fodder, and that’s not such a bad thing sometimes.
IMDB: Crazy Stupid Love
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