A smart insight into the middle-aged man.

Rating: 7/10 (7 October 2012)

Crazy, Stupid, Love is a poise between perfect love and the perfect heartache. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's movie is toned with a blessing of an appealing cast and a catalogue of emotions, accompanied by a sentimental description. The narrative is smart, counteracted by the bizarre irrational, dealing with love cheats, the self-pitying and the young and the wild. Steve Carell's role exploits the confusion of the male bearing. His wife Emily (Julianne Moore) declares her unfaithfulness due to her exasperated feelings of their long serving marriage. Cal (Carell) moves out in an attempt to clear the air, or in his case languish in his broodiness, wandering how his perfect suburban marriage crushed before his very eyes. Whilst in this fragile, yet sympathetic frame of mind he takes the time visiting a lustrous modern bar where he meets lady's man Jacob (Ryan Gosling). Jacob is a people watcher, a male spectator, inviting his services to help a man revitalise his sense of masculinity in an attempt to whisk the ladies off their feet and prize a night under the covers. Cal represents the typical middle-aged male stereotype, a lack of fashion sense, appalling hairstyle and a list of terrible handbook jokes. With Jacob's tuition Cal sets out on an operation to tangle with as many women as possible in a stab back at his unlawful and dishonest wife.
The film's ending cunningly weaves all our lead characters together in an unexpected round up of commotion and revealing confessions. Although we are familiar with Carell's usual role as the family sweetheart or the exile trying to bind his way into the mainstream, his usual temperament is recognised with mischievous tones that we adore him for.