What movie were you watching?

Rating: 3/10 (19 December 2011)

I saw a movie that was completely unbelievable. And the unbelievability not only kept me from caring about all these characters, but I found I started to really dislike them.
This is a movie about love. 95% of the movie doesn't show us why these characters fall in love--the one exception is the two minutes when ryan gosling and emma stone's characters finally socialize. Otherwise, for a movie that revolves around how we love others, we are never shown why. At least tell us why, which would be bad filmmaking, but at least it's something. But from the onset of the movie we know certain characters love other certain characters, only because they tell us that they do. Never do we know why. There's no meat added to the bones. In the movie, love is a defined thing. Not as ambiguous as it is in real life. But although it's a singular defined thing, they never define it! Secondly, these characters have no motivation to do any of the things they do. Or let me rephrase: the motivation that's offered is shotty, unbelievable. Why is ryan gosling helping steve carrell? I don't get it. Why does Steve carrell change the person that he's been for 40+ years? I don't buy it. Why does Marissa Tomei become attracted to Steve Carell, because the plot needs her to. Why does Emma Stone walk into a bar and kiss a guy who just happens to be there after a 3 minute conversation she had with him over 1 week ago? And why does she grow to hate her boyfriend? Why does the son build this huge thing, somehow lug it to a high school, cut school himself, and stand up in front of kids much older than him to profess his love? Why does the seventeen year old love an older man? To be clear, motivation is offered for most of these scenarios, but it's unbelievable. And in some cases no motivation is offered. That's bad writing. Not even in a "it's so bad it's fun" kinda way. It's just bad. And it makes the movie totally uninteresting.
Steve Carrell attempts to save this mess with a few punchlines that do push out a chuckle and there's a funny little farce at the end of the movie (also with half-assed motivation, but you'll give it a pass). But in the hands of creatives with something interesting to say and who don't have the pressure of a major Hollywood studio backing the film, this movie could have been very good.