Crazy, Stupid, Love.: Refreshingly Real

Steve Carell’s new “romantic comedy” flick Crazy, Stupid, Love. should have an explanation point at the end, as if it’s being said as an expletive.  Why?   It’s a great movie, and it really encapsulates what we all (or at least what most of us feel) love is.  It’s crazy.  It’s even stupid sometimes—but hey, it’s love.  And sometimes, you just want to make it an expletive.

Following about three different main storylines, Crazy, Stupid, Love. is sort of an anti-romantic comedy.  It follows a strangely refreshing trend that so many seem to be exploring nowadays in the attempt to fuse Hollywood romance with real-life relationship drama.  It opens with our hero, Cal Weaver (Steve Carell), being told by his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) that she’s cheating on him with a co-worker (played by Kevin Bacon).  He is summarily dumped and, in both depression and desperation, even jumps from a moving vehicle.  After the initial move-out, Cal attempts to “move on” through a series of rebounds (including one with Marisa Tomei) under the direction of a much younger wingman by the name of Jacob (Ryan Gosling).  

Somewhere in the mix there is the love story of a seemingly unconnected young lawyer named Hannah (Emma Stone), as well as the unrequited love story of the babysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), who has one of those silly, school-girl crushes on Carell’s character that eventually turns into an uncomfortable love triangle involving Carell’s son, Robbie (Jonah Bobo).  Even baritone superstar Josh Groban makes an appearance as a “blah,” disposable lawyer character.

Aside from the star-studded cast, there’s a really great story here, and a wonderful opportunity for good actors to showcase their skills through masterfully crafted characters—no doubt why Carell himself decided to produce the thing.  This is also something I’d like to highlight for the aspiring screenwriters amongst us, as this is an extremely important part of the screenwriting process.  As important as story is, what’s most important here is the creation of characters that make a story happen to them through their actions—not a story forced upon its characters.

There are multitudes of ways that a person could respond to a cheating spouse, or even that a cheating spouse could respond to their own behavior.  In Crazy, Stupid, Love., our two main characters in the first story of infidelity—Carell and Moore—walk a tightrope of emotions as they each try to handle the situation.  What is really interesting about them, however, is that while they may act in one way, both actors communicate that their characters clearly feel another.  Carell’s character, Cal Waver, is a great example.  At one end of the spectrum, he is the kind of guy who fell in love at 16, and still thinks that his high school love is the person he’s meant to be with forever.  Given that person also cheated on him with Kevin Bacon (but really, who wouldn’t?), he’s also semi-convinced that maybe he really should just move on.

Moving on is what you’re supposed do when your spouse cheats on you, right?  He doesn’t want to though, and it’s evident.  Mentored in the ways of seduction by Gosling’s character, Cal manages to take at least nine women home (including Marisa Tomei) in an attempt to cope with his wife’s infidelity.  There’s still a palpable sense of regret to his actions though that clearly communicates, on many levels, that he is not happy with the decisions he’s made.

Moore’s character, Emily, is much the same way.  Even though she’s ultimately the perpetrator of the infidelity, she is also torn by the situation.  Like her husband, she acknowledges several times that a divorce must happen—though not necessarily for lack of love.  She’s cheated on her husband, so this is the way it must be.  Cheating means there’s no love left and that you have to move on–even if she feels differently.  Yet, at one point in the film, Emily calls Cal under the guise of needing help to relight a pilot light—even though she merely stands in her living room and seems only to want to hear his voice.  It is this inward turmoil experienced by both that really makes their actions interesting, because they act in ways that they perceive they should, even when their own thoughts are to the contrary.

A great deal of this inward turmoil can be attributed to the writing.  After all, I believe that this is definitely what attracted such great talent to the script.  That being said, however, I cannot ignore the stellar performances put in by each and every single actor involved with the project.  Great writing aside, it takes a certain caliber of talent to pull off speaking the volumes of simultaneous hurt, sadness, and joy demonstrated by our main players.  Ryan Gosling, in addition to Carell, turns in a stupendous performance, capturing the essence of a womanizer who really just wants to be loved.

(And he takes his shirt off…just saying…)

Though billed as a “romantic comedy,” this film is really a romantic dramedy at best.  There are certainly comedic elements to it (after all, it is a Steve Carell film), but it does not follow the “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, and a bunch of silly things happen” formula that one might expect.  In fact—and this is perhaps a spoiler—it is quite the opposite, in a way.  It’s a romantic comedy with very sincere touches of reality.  Emotions are not black and white, and neither are relationships.  And though I’m not quite sure yet how I feel about giving up my escapist two hours for more reminders that sometimes life just doesn’t work out, Crazy, Stupid, Love. is refreshingly real, heartfelt, funny, and definitely worth the admission price.