Really well done

Rating: 8/10 (4 December 2011)

A shockingly intelligent, adult romantic comedy. Steve Carell, in his best film role, stars as a man whose wife (Julianne Moore) admits to having an affair. She also wants a divorce. After a couple of nights of loud whining at a bar, super-stud Ryan Gosling decides to teach Carell how to be a man - that is, pick up women. And it works! But that only seems to ruin Carell's life more in the long run. Meanwhile, Gosling, always the cool cat, falls for the one girl who is too smart for his schtick, Emma Stone. Stone is the best thing about the movie. She's so utterly charming and intelligent. She can elevate a mediocre movie like Easy A. In an already good movie like this one, she raises it to a whole other level whenever she's on screen. I also loved the subplot about Carell and Moore's son, Jonah Bobo, and his crush on his four years-older babysitter (Analeigh Tipton), who herself has a crush on Carell. The film also co-stars Marissa Tomei, Kevin Bacon, John Carroll Lynch and Beth Littleford (Carell's real-life wife). About the only thing I didn't like in the film: Stone's sassy Asian friend (Melissa Tang), who apparently has no sex life of her own. Apparently we've moved away from the gay best friend stereotype and moved into the Asian best friend. But besides that one tiny element, we really don't get that many comedies with this level of writing. It's a gem.