Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. is a comedy about the pain of love, mid-life crisis, early-life crisis, betrayal, and finding out what it's like to explore life from new and unusual perspectives.  Like last year's sleeper hit The Kids are All Right, which also featured Julianne Moore as a mom in family conflict, Crazy, Stupid, Love. has an original and funny screenplay, a talented cast, and solid directing. What elevates Crazy, Stupid, Love. is the sheer humor of the writing and the comic timing of the acting and directing. It is a very funny film filled with characters who are well-developed and very likable. And the script does not talk down to the audience--there isn't a single gross-out scene anywhere to be found (except for a 13 year-old boy caught masturbating by his babysitter--but more about that later).

Glenn Ficarra and John Requa are a writer/director team who wrote the films I Love You Phillip Morris, Bad News Bears, Bad Santa and Cats and Dogs. They made their directing debut in 2009 with I Love You Phillip Morris and are working for the first time as directors on a script not written by themselves. Screenwriter Dan Fogelman (Cars and Cars 2, Tangled, Bolt), worked on the story a bit then stuck it in his desk for a number of years until his wife reminded him about it.  He wrote the film quickly and gave it to his agent and the response came back pretty rapidly--Steve Carell agreed to produce and star in it and Ficarra and Requa signed on soon afterwards.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. is about change and the film gets right to the point. The story opens in a nice restaurant with a dog's-eye view of what is going on beneath the tables. Whether it's the water or the soft music everyone in the restaurant is well-heeled and engaged in serious games of footsies. High heel and patent leather shoes rub each other in a montage that only hints at what else these playful folks might be up to once they go home. Finally the camera finds it's way beneath a table that is a clear exception to the salacious mood. A man's pair of feet in soiled New Balance sneakers sits tucked beneath a chair, far away from a woman's pair of legs tucked far beneath another chair.  Cut to the table top and we find Steve Carell (Cal) and Julianne Moore (Emily), a husband and wife who can't seem to figure out what they want to order. Counting to three to see if they want the same thing Emily instantly changes the mood when she blurts out that she wants a divorce. Not what Cal was expecting. And it only gets worse when he finds out what she has been up to with David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon), a deliciously comic name that gets ample airtime in the film. When Cal jumps out of the moving car, leaving his distressed and confused wife at the wheel, their lives will never be the same.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. is successful as a classically constructed comedy because it is complex in characterization, coherent, works on multiple levels of storytelling and manages to pull together all of the plot twists in a satisfying way. By their nature comedies are able, and often expected, to stretch credulity in terms of coincidence and this film is no exception. Without giving it away there are a number of plot points that would seem too far fetched in dramatic form (or in real life) but that go down really well in the world of comedy.

The film is about transformation and the one in biggest need of change is middle-aged Cal. He has only known and slept with one woman in his life (that fate would make that woman Julianne Moore hardly seems cruel)--and he is hardly prepared for the single lifestyle that he stumbles upon in the trendy bar he makes his home away from home. Some of the funniest moments in the film come between him and Ryan Gosling's truly hedonistic and self-absorbed Jacob, who takes it as his personal mission to get Cal up to dating speed. Gosling gets to put his comic side on display, not seen since Lars and the Real Girl, and certainly not part of his repertoire in Half Nelson or Blue Valentine. Carell is so overmatched by his new life that he is fodder in the hands of the smooth and super successful Jacob. Life lessons are passed on in shirts, shoes ("if you are not Steve Jobs then you will not wear New Balance"), mannerisms, cologne, and pick-up lines ("talk about her, not about your divorce").

Crazy, Stupid, Love. is self-aware about the genre conventions of romantic comedy, which makes it feel fresh. Once Cal becomes a "new man" his first conquest is a high school teacher, played with huge passion and hilarious vindictiveness by Marisa Tomei. Later he appears with his son and estranged wife at a parent/teacher conference that goes wrong in a terrible and humiliating way. After much embarrassment Cal finally escapes the accusations and anger of parents, teachers and his one family and stands alone outside the school--only to be drenched in a cold sudden downpour. In a moment that Carrel and the directors say was unscripted Cal looks up to the sky completely defeated, and blurts out "What a cliche".  It's funny, it's sad, and it works perfectly.

The tight and funny script is supported by an excellent and well-directed cast. Carrel and Gosling are comfortable and play off each other with humor and emotion. The exaggerations of Gosling's narcism work wonderfully against Carrel's squashed and suppressed ego. Both actors give fully rounded performances in a film where everyone is likable but also vulnerable to the cruel twists that love will strike into the hearts and minds of young and old alike. Julianne Moore's Emily is so confused that she confesses a lie about being at work one night--instead she went to see the movie Twilight--and hated it. Kevin Bacon, her one-night stand, is a normal accountant leading a regular 9 to 5 life. Fogelman knows how to write believable but funny characters, and Ficarra and Requa know how to direct comedy. Crazy, Stupid, Love. strikes a rare and satisfying balance between funny dialogue, situational humor and characters who seem pretty normal but are not out of place in a world of comedy.

And what about the boy caught masturbating by his babysitter? This is familiar territory for modern comedies, akin to the imaginative (or not) use of feces, bodily fluids and other unsavories.  Thankfully Fogelman has a broader purpose here. Robbie (Jonah Bobo) is the son of Cal and Emily and he has a serious crush on Jessica (Analeigh Tipton). It's not just an "ewww" moment (though up there on the funny/awkward scale of embarrassing personal events). Getting caught represents Robbie's pursuit of Jessica's heart--and the pain of rejection he feels as an absolute beginner. Robbie's anguish is a continuous reminder of the journey his parents have taken--high school sweethearts, married young, gradually losing interest and passion until one day it was as though they did not know each other. Fogelman's script feels perfectly balanced, with numerous stories about undiscovered, unrequited and unattainable love moving on parallel journeys until they collide in inevitable and surprising ways. Crazy, Stupid, Love. feels a lot like the Woody Allen quote--"I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox". Everyone in the film seems to be imagining, or pursuing, or trying to rediscover that nauseous and tingly feeling--whether they know it or not. Though extremely painful to experience--it is quite funny to watch.
 

                                    Thomas W. Campbell