Great in parts but horribly flawed in others.

Rating: 5/10 (11 September 2013)

Crazy, Stupid, Love is almost a brilliant film, but it misses the mark so heavily on one of its main elements that is is dragged down into the mud. To it credit it does the 'Com' bit fantastically, Steve Carell plays the awkward 40-something part brilliantly, as he does whenever he is cast in this role. He is a pleasure to watch and this movie would be lost without him. Gosling is even pretty watchable, and at times funny, his character has little depth however, and the parts of the film that are emotional or romantic he fails to put any real feeling into his character.
The films biggest flaw is its women, I am not one to shout the feminist agenda from the rooftops but you get the feeling the Writers had a complete contempt for the female sex. Moore sometimes emerges from these shackles and you start to emphasise with her character but mostly she is the cause of the breakup and has little on screen time with her family. Emma Stones character is simply awful, and her friend in the film played by Liza Lapira is downright sickening. If we take one thing away from this film it is that if a woman is better looking than her partner he better know it, and he better know that he is lucky to have her. It is such a pathetic and shallow view of love an relationships and it jibes so sharply with the message this film thinks its trying to communicate that it not only taints the film but destroys it. As if this wasn't bas enough Stones character for the rest of the film goes from mish-mash-crazy to completely uninvolved, its a real shame.
The film still has its laugh-out-loud moments, and some great writing, but it cant recover from its fatal flaws.