Crazy, Stupid, Love
Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling BARELY save this from falling into Pure Formula Hell.
Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011). Grade: C
Hey, would you like to watch a movie about Dating And The Modern Man, written by one of the minds behind Cars?
Me, neither. I did, though. If you are thinking of watching this, go see Battle Of The Sexes, instead. It’s A LOT better.
For a bright guy (this much was obvious from his Daily Show appearances), Steve Carell somehow got tracked into these formula romantic things. Like Date Night, which I think I saw on a plane, and is the epitome of Movie You Watch On A Plane. Or The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which is not remotely believable about anything (just like all the other movies Judd Apatow wrote).
Here, you’ve got a not-believable breakup between Carell and Julianne Moore, followed by Carell getting Man Instructions from pick-up artist Ryan Gosling. The Man Instructions are so ridiculously bad, you wonder who dumped the screenwriter and why.
(Also, were people still going to pick-up joints in 2011? Maybe they were. I’d already known several married people who’d met online, though. Not that the Man Instructions for online dating would be any less ooky.)
They might be meant as satirically bad, though, and that’s certainly the way Gosling plays them. Basically, he’s getting the ladies because, face it, he’s Ryan damn Gosling and he’s cute as hell, and in great shape to boot. The Man Instructions would be worthless if he looked like David Krumholtz (who I love, by the way!). In any case, it’s pretty funny watching Steve Carell transform himself into a bumbling Sexx Magnet.
Eventually, there’s a Plot Twist. I won’t reveal it, as it did surprise me a little. (That’s not really a compliment; it’s a clever scriptwriting trick, but it sure doesn’t make the characters more realistic.) The twist leads to Everything Working Out for Everyone Involved.
In the late 80s/early 90s, there was a saying, “The World According To Touchstone.” It referred to movies like Pretty Woman or Three Men And A Baby in which any shadow of a hint of Actual Humans was wiped away in mindless sentiment, and usually all the characters existed in some sort of Vaguely Rich universe where everyone works at the same office building. Crazy, Stupid, Love isn’t a Touchstone movie, but it’s definitely in the same mold. (So’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, which also has Carell, and ruins the great title of a great childrens’ book, and I really need to stop picking on Steve Carell, he didn’t write these things!)
I originally typed that the lovely and talented Emma Stone is all but wasted, here, as is Moore, as is Marissa Tomei and Beth Littleford (another brilliant Daily Show alumni who never got the parts she should have). It’s not that they’re wasted, exactly — movies like this need supporting performers you enjoy, even if you know they deserve better. Pretty Woman works, to the extent it does, because everyone likes Hector Elizondo and Laura San Giacomo.
I enjoy the performers in this movie, even if the concept is pretty ugly. Hey, that’s Hollywood for you. Or the world according to Hollywood, or Touchstone.