Review of Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011) by Clarisesamuels — 03 Nov 2011

Crazy, Stupid, Unrealistic Love.

Steve Carell has played this part before, I'm sure of it, but off the top of my head I can't remember where. However, he is refining the role. This time, he restrains himself and tries to truly act rather than go over the top. And he succeeds in a crazy, stupid way. A married couple is calling it quits because the wife is bored and the husband is so used to her that he pays much more attention to the yard work than he does to her. Indeed, when they are separated, he dreams that the other man is mowing his beloved lawn while his estranged wife relaxes and watches her lover with admiration. For the character called Cal, played by Carell, this is truly a nightmare. Cal sneaks back to his property at regular intervals, not to gaze at his dear wife through the window, but to trim the hedges, prune the roses, and aerate the lawn.

There are so many coincidences in this movie that it may qualify as a comedy of errors, but the errors are outrageous and strain the patience of the viewer. Jacob is so brutally promiscuous and uses women so outrageously that when he accidentally falls in love, it's hard to believe that Jacob the Cad is now Jacob the **** although Ryan Gosling does some good acting in this role. Cal's 13-year-old son is madly in love with the babysitter, who's madly in love with the dad, but the kid pursues the babysitter with such ardor and persistence that he more than qualifies for intense psychotherapy, which for some reason, is never mentioned.

Inappropriate behavior abounds, and the police only show up once (and only to say if you're going to have a brawl, please stay inside the house), and otherwise, the message is no matter how badly one has made a spectacle of oneself, everyone will forget all about it as soon as the incident is over. Of course, everyone forgot about Japan after a couple of months, and they had an earthquake, a tsunami, and a nuclear meltdown, so maybe Steve Carell, the star and the producer, knows whereof he speaks. In any case, if you have ever made a fool of yourself in love, after seeing this movie, you will realize that your case is mild if not positively normal. Score=5.