Not what you might expect

Rating: 8/10 (28 August 2011)

On the surface that trailers supply for us, this film looks like a run-of-the-mill How Cal Got His Groove Back. We follow Carell's character (Cal) after his wife, Emily (played by Julianne Moore) blurt's out over dinner that she wants a divorce. It's not a stunning hook, since we kind of already knew it was going to happen from the trailer, but it works well. In a Rom-Com, that's basically what you are looking for. New ways to freshen up a cliché, or fresh takes on familiar situations. Crazy, Stupid, Love essentially lives in the latter as we find Cal as the perfect dad who's only real sin here is that he is content with his life and family, and it is the wife who gets cast in the shallow role.
Simultaneously, we get the story of young Hannah (Emma Stone). She's an aspiring attorney who is about to take the BAR exam and really hoping that clean cut, gosh-golly-shucks Richard (Josh Groban) will ask her to marry him. If you want foreign, here it is. The sexy, brilliant girl wants Ned Flanders instead of smoking hot Jacob (Ryan Gosling). Totally a dude crush here. He's cut, he's not a high school football player who loves country music, and he's definitely not hanging around some lady with Alzheimer's. He's the ladies man who considers himself a gentleman because he knows how to get her home, and get her to want him so much she basically begs for it.
On the outskirts, a puppy love story between Robbie and Jessica. Well, sort of. Robbie is Cal's son and Jessica is his babysitter. Hilarity and awkwardness ensues. Honestly, this is one of the greatest treats of the film as Robbie (Jonah Bobo) carries the scenes between he and his dad, and there is palpable tension between Jessica (Analeigh Tipton) and Cal's ex, Emily (Moore), as Jess has the requisite crush on the dad, and thinks Emily is crazy for leaving him.
That is your basic set-up. The comedy style is little bit Carell, and little bit Americanized-British humor (awkward situations and social faux paux). The main reason I didn't give the movie 9or ten stars is because we have rich characters to play with and they barely scratch the surface. We get an 80s montage of verbage from Jacob to explain why he hunts women the way he does, an unexplained purpose for the mentorship of Jacob toward Cal (other than some character development for Jacob), and some mind-blowing insight from a junior high student (Bobo) that we have no idea where he picked it up. The main point is to say, if you like Carell, you'll like the movie. If you like romantic-comedies, this one will twist you up and leave you delighted. If you are a fan of things like love and marriage, this film will remind you of some reasons you think people are crazy for not getting married and taking a chance that this person might just be your soul mate. The characters are crazy, they do some stupid things, and, for better or worse, it is all for the glory of love.