DVD review: Crazy Stupid Love ****

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9:

Crazy Stupid Love ****

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Rating: PG-13

Director: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Actors: Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Julianne Moore; Ryan Gosling

It’s unfortunate that the traditional romantic comedy genre is not currently in vogue and has been replaced with same sex friendship comedies like The Hangover and Bridesmaids with their exteme situations and tawdry humour. But every so often, a little gem of a movie is released that is both well acted and well written and it restores your belief that not everything in Hollywood is made for the lowest common denominator. Crazy Stupid Love is one of those gems.

Although there are a number of different story lines, the plot centres on forty something Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) who is living a very ordinary suburban life until his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) reveals that she’s had an affair and wants a divorce after twenty years of marriage. Nursing his self-pity at a bar, Cal meets the charismatic Jacob (Ryan Gosling) who offers to help transform him into the Don Juan that many middle-aged men aspire to. Complications ensue when Jacob finds the girl he calls “a game changer” and Cal’s 13-year-old son Robbie has fallen in love with the baby sitter. Throughout Cal’s journey he discovers that without Emily his life is unfulfilled and empty and that love is something that you fight for. In the last twenty minutes all the different story lines come together in an amusing and unexpected twist.

With solid acting from the entire cast, Steve Carell mostly plays Cal straight and sympathetically when it could have been very easy him to make Cal the target of all the easy jokes. Marisa Tomei makes a wonderful appearance as a “cougar” that Cal scores with who turns out to be his son’s teacher. The writing is subtle and the humour is amusing and that’s what makes this movie a gem, the writers don’t beat you over the head to try to get a laugh. Younger audiences will not fully appreciate that after twenty years of marriage, it takes more then just love to make a relationship work, it takes understanding and forgiveness.