Crazy, Stupid, Love

I know, I know. I didn’t expect to be watching this film either. My girlfriend brought it round and so it got put on.

I was pleasantly surprised, don’t get me wrong it’s a typical sort of love story, man finding his way after being lost film. But Steve Carell is just an actor who you can engage with in these sorts of roles and Ryan Gosling also does a good job too.

The story revolves around Carell as his wife unexpectedly asks for a divorce one day over dinner and he find himself having to rebuild himself with the aid of Gosling who’s a man who knows how to pick up women, like really knows. He doesn’t know their name or anything else, but he can get them in bed!

The story isn’t bad, it’s heart-warming, a tad cliched and quite predictable but in a way that doesn’t really matter too much. It’s not trying to be anything special or new particularly and so it does what it does very well.

Dan Fogelman is the writer, he doesn’t seem to stick to genres given his previous credits include: Bolt, Cars & Cars 2, Fred Claus etc. Directing duties fall to two people: Glenn Ficarra & John Requa, who both previously directed I Love You Phillip Morris, and they do a fine job, nothing ground breaking but is subtle enough that you don’t notice they are their, which is what you want.

There’s also a very funny side-story involving Carell’s son who has a crush on the babysitter, it’s a nice side-laugh to the movie.

The main problem with the movie is it tries to tie in all these different people’s stories into one overarching story, something like Crash, however it just doesn’t quite work which I think is mainly down to the type of story it is.

The bringing together lots of different stories into one story works best in movies like Crash, or the Quentin Tarantino style movie. A love story, at least a comedy love story, just doesn’t have the same sort of feel, it’s a tad unnecessary honestly.

However, I’m avoiding the main thing here, what you really want to know is: does Ryan Gosling get his top off, yes, the answer is yes ladies. And Emma Stone’s retort is classic “oh come one! You look Photoshopped!” brilliant, remember that one ladies!