Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)

The ironic and embarrassing thing is, the person I was watching this with knows how relatable the theme of "finding your one true soul mate" is currently. This will be difficult to review without affecting me personally, but when a film does that to you it just goes to show how powerful the art can be. We follow a variety of characters as they explore the emotion of love. A middle aged couple going through a divorce, a babysitter who has fallen for her employee, a young boy who's in love with the babysitter, a promiscuous dating expert who eventually finds "the one" and a young woman hoping for a proposal. Eventually, we find that these characters interlink in a sprawling narrative detailing the joys and sorrows of love. Despite all that, the biggest element that resonated with me the most was to never give up fighting for the one you love. And I know the person this refers to in my life will read this review, and I know they will do everything in their power to not acknowledge my true feelings...but it's worth fighting for right? Absolutely, and the film conveys that message eloquently, particularly in the third act which I did not see coming at all. I literally shouted "no...nooo...NOOO!" as one character attempts to regain a form of relationship, albeit goes terribly wrong. The narrative consistently switches between characters, reminiscent of the classic rom com 'Love Actually', which keeps the pacing interesting. Acting was emotionally investing from everyone. Ryan Gosling shows us that his comedic timing is excellent, Steve Carell is able to perform some dramatic scenes and Julianne Moore is always dependable. Emma Stone's character needed a larger amount of screen time, I felt her character was unevenly balanced. We see practically nothing of her in the first two acts and then she becomes the main attraction in the third. It just meant I hadn't warmed to her like I did with the other characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this though, I laughed, teared up and smiled. Love hurts dammit!

Becoming a boring husband after 25 years of marriage, Cal is asked by his wife (Emily) to divorce because she cheated on him with a work colleague. From this moment, his life is about to take a dramatic turn which coincides with a new friend, Jacob. He will teach Cal how to become a real man, impressing women and asking them out in order to make his wife regret her decision. All goes according to plan but Cal isn't convinced he's doing the right thing so he slowly tries to come back together with Emily. At the same time something strange happens to Jacob. He gets "assaulted" by a girl with whom he falls in love and tries to become the man Cal was before the transformation.It's a puzzling story which follows dramatic changes of attitude from lots of characters throughout this picture. Despite being an interesting story, it gets boring more often than I can neglect and although it tries a lot to be funny, it doesn't actually manage most of the time. It's a good movie nevertheless but there were some moments which almost made me skip so I can't give it a better rating. Too bad!

Well, this is a romantic comedy, so with that expectations I watched it. The story felt for me pretty original in this kind of movies. Cal (Steve Carell) gets very upset because his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) asks for the divorce and he is later helped by Jacob (Ryan Gosling) to rediscover his manhood so he can feel well again. Jacob also meets a girl called Hannah and falls in love with her. There is also another thread on the story with the babysitter of the sons of Cal and Emily, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton) who is taking care of Molly and Robbie who falls in love with her, but she loves another person.Well the story might look a bit full of characters but all of them get a proper screen time, enough for their stories to develop well. Steve Carell has a good chemistry with Julianne Moore and you can care about their marriage and so, and also Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling have very a good brother-friend relationship, but for me the highlights of this movie are all the moments Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone share together on screen, which are worth watching this movie. They have such a great chemistry that they feel like a real-life couple. They are so lovely together that I wish this movie had been only the story of them, because, for me it would have been perfect. The story of Steve Carell helped by Ryan Gosling is also great and funny, but what for me ruins this movie a bit is the part of Jessica and Robbie, not also because it's very unrealistic (a thirteen age boy falls in love with his seventeen year old babysitter, but she is in love with his father and takes herself nude pictures for him? C'mon screenwriters, who had this idea?). This part of the story is not also unrealistic but very odd and a bit useless. And as their plot line, also the characters of this part felt a bit flat and without any charisma. But also, it's a romantic comedy you cannot ask that much for it.This movie is a very funny romantic comedy with many hilarious moments but also other moments full of emotion and romance. I recommend you the movie if you want to be entertained for about two hours, laughing and smiling without nothing to worry about.And finally I have to add this: "Emma Stone is the perfect blend of sexy and adorable"

Usually, I'm not a huge fan of this rom-com genre. There are just too many opportunities for films of this nature to go astray, from acting to story to ridiculousness. Fortunately, "Crazy Stupid Love" doesn't fall prey to those traps and instead provides a tight, stylish, funny, and even moving production that appeals to a broad range of movie-watchers.For a basic plot summary, "Crazy Stupid Love" sees a middle-aged couple (played by Steve Carell & Julianne Moore) get a sudden divorce, shaking their family to the core. Concurrently, a suave love-guru (Ryan Gosling) takes Carell's sad-sack character and tries to turn him into a ladies man, all the while pursuing a mysterious, fresh-faced girl (Emma Watson) who is unlike any girl he has met before.The calling-card of this flick is its ability to carry multiple plot lines over the duration of the film until they all converge in the end. There is never a shortage of things going on, all related to the central concept of the "craziness of love".The acting has to be great for a movie like this to succeed, and that is exactly what we get here. While all the actors are impressive in their own right, it's their chemistry that really shines here. By the end, all of the major players have interacted with each other, and it all comes off seamlessly.The "polish" of this film is also impressive. Everything is just so slick, from the dialogue to the clothing and especially the young cast members (Gosling & Stone, in particular). In short, this movie lacks nothing in the production-value department.Overall, then, "Crazy Stupid Love" is a film that can be enjoyed by teens on up for a variety of different reasons. I watched primarily for Carell's acting, but was quickly drawn in by the innocent beauty of Stone and the slickness of Gosling. I'm sure you'll find a reason to be sucked in as well.