Fun With Characters

Rating: Null/10 (26 July 2011)

The movie suffers perhaps from too many characters and subplots but all the actors appear to have fun with their characters. The script, by Dan Fogelman, is unusually and gratifyingly bisexual - i.e., it boasts scenes from both the male and female points of view. And the The movie's biggest surprise is the revelation of Gosling as cunning comedian. The complexities of the heart are given a dispiritedly glib once-over in Crazy, Stupid, Love., a comedy-drama that pretends to be a honest look at relationships when it's really just burdened with simplistic characters and sitcom set-ups. Star and producer Steve Carell provides a dependable soulfulness to this story about a troubled marriage, but the increasingly preposterous plotting makes the film hard to love or even like.