It's Definitely Crazy.

Rating: 7/10 (7 April 2019)

"Crazy, Stupid, Love," a film directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, definitely lives up to its name of being crazy and sometimes stupid, however I wouldn't say I loved it, but I liked it quite a bit.
At first the plot of this film may seem rather simple. It follows the story of family man, Cal Weaver (Steve Carell), who is living the perfect life; he has a wife and a couple of children. But his world comes crashing down when his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), declares her desire for a divorce after confessing to an affair that she had with her colleague. Feeling down, Cal finds himself in a single's bar sulking about his current situation. It is there that he meets playboy Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling), who offers to take Cal under his wing and help him regain his lost manhood. Accompany this plot with many intricately woven sub-plots and you are in for a wild ride.
"Crazy, Stupid, Love" uses common genre clichés and use them to their advantage to the extent that the film resembles a British farce more than a romantic comedy. In most films, drastic changes in tone may seem out of place and sometimes, can even ruin your viewing experience, but in this case, it makes for better storytelling.
The cast of this film is noteworthy as well. Carell provides an entertaining performance, and brought a lot of energy to the film, yet I couldn't help but notice the similarities to his other works such as "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and NBC's "The Office." Although he recycles his usual gimmicks, his performance never seems to get stale. Gosling also takes a fresh new take on his acting career. He is unexpectedly hilarious and steals every scene that he is in. This is not something that I expected from an actor that tends to take on a more dramatic pallet of films. The chemistry between Carell and Gosling mustn't be overlooked. It was very genuine and sincere. Even the child actors in this film were pretty good; their performances were not unbearable like some other child actors their age.
The dialogue and characters felt so lifelike and fleshed out. I applaud the directors for being able to pull off such a complex task so well. You can tell that a lot of care went into these characters.
Of course, this film is not without its flaws. There were times when the pacing slowed down and caused the film to drag on. It is understandable why the directors chose to do this. This choice made room for some of the best character development that I have seen in any romantic comedy. I simply wish that it had been executed more effectively. The soundtrack in the film was also bland and forgettable. It was simply a compilation of 80's pop songs. They rarely served relevance to the plot or scene at hand, and when they did it was so on the nose and blatantly lazy.
All in all, "Crazy, Stupid, Love" was a great take on an often worn out genre of film. Solid performances, some witty comedy and a heartfelt script make it better than most modern American comedies, and is definitely worth the watch.