One of the best of its genre.

Rating: 10/10 (7 March 2012)

Romantic comedies are dime a dozen these days and they are all mostly tacky, boring or unbelievably clichéd and raunchy but even then they are soulless rehashes of the same stuff over and over again. So when my friend recommended "Crazy, Stupid, Love", I wasn't too interested to watch another romcom even though it starred some of my favorite actors like Emma Stone, Julianne Moore, Steve Carell, Bacon and Ryan Gosling. But, she finally persuaded me to watch this with her last week and boy do I wish I had seen this sooner.
An average middle-aged couple, Cal (Steve Carell) and Emily Weaver (Julianne Moore) are out on a date when Emily announces that she wants a divorce as she is stuck in a rut and is bored by her married life. Cal cannot process the thought that the woman he loves doesn't want him anymore and is sleeping with another guy, Lindhaaaaaagen (Kevin Bacon) and leaves home. He keeps on moping at the hot local club to everybody who would listen to his plight. Here Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling), who is a real charming ladies man and seems quite successful in his life, decides to help out Cal in becoming a real man and score with the opposite sex. But Jacob cannot score with this one hottie, Hanna (Emma Stone) who is in a stupid relationship with a lawyer, according to her best friend. The rest of the movie is about how their paths collide with each other and a babysitter's crush on the dad, while the son crushes on the babysitter.
This movie is really refreshingly different from the tons of other romcoms that are being churned out by Hollywood. Its surprisingly deep without throwing it at our faces, tugged at my heartstrings in a few scenes and yet made me laugh so much and relate to these flawed characters. Marissa Tomei's cameo role was awesome! Emma is as usual, brilliant in the movie. Its nice to see Gosling in a comedy after a long time. He really looked and acted like a sexy heartthrob and reminded me of Jensen Ackles for some reason. Julianne and Carell rarely disappoint me. The lovestruck babysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton) deserves a special mention. It could have come off as cheesy and disgusting, but any scene involving her and Cal or her and the teen boy were so intense and ridiculously hilarious! Suffice to say that all the actors were great and I can see no flaws in the storyline or anything which made me not like the movie in any way.
Oh, and also nobody could predict that amazing twist at the end! If anybody says they could see it coming without knowing that beforehand, is just plain (insert expletive) you! Or they're just saying it randomly and sticking to it. Most comedies are dragged down by the second half of the movie, but that never happens here. There's no slump!! All the credit goes to the writers and actors for pulling this off seamlessly and rooting it in reality while not compromising on the laughs. It has its heart in the right place and the story doesn't depend on cheesy, raunchy antics to push the plot forward.
As I grow older and being a guy, I am finding that the romcoms I once loved are getting more nauseating day by day and there are very few of them that I really like. "Crazy, Stupid, Love" is a little gem of a movie, quite easily the best comedy of the year. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this movie should have been nominated for the Oscars in place of "Bridesmaids" if they wanted a distinct comedy movie to be in the Best Picture category. Watch it folks, you won't be regretting it.
10/10