Smart, Dexterous Roundelay of Love's Labor Lost

Rating: 8/10 (27 August 2011)

I tend to underestimate Steve Carell on the big screen probably because of titles like "Dinner with Schmucks", "Evan Almighty", and of course, "The 40 Year-Old Virgin", but when given the opportunity as he did in 2007's "Dan in Real Life" and as he does in this grown-up 2011 comedy, he can provide unexpected dimension to an otherwise put-upon, sad-sack character. Co-directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa and written by Dan Fogelman, this movie is overlong at 118 minutes and has contrivances galore, but it's also smart, shrewdly observed, and richly character-driven. These qualities override the flaws primarily due to a well-assembled cast that also includes Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone and Marisa Tomei. Fogelman's screenplay punctuates big life lessons with clever scenes and ensemble set pieces that really snap and play like a Shakespearean roundelay.
The plot centers on nebbish suburbanite Cal Weaver, who after two decades of seemingly content marriage, finds out his wife Emily has been unfaithful with her co-worker and wants a divorce. As the reality of his situation settles in, he moves from comatose to resentful to relentlessly morose at which point he has a chance meeting in a trendy bar with a self-confident womanizer named Jacob Palmer. Through reasons that go unexplained, Jacob decides to make Cal his pet project and make him over into a smooth-talking dating machine in an amusing montage that climaxes with a date with Kate, a jittery middle schoolteacher who turns out to be something of a nymphomaniac. Emily stumbles in her newly liberated state, while her and Cal's 13-year-old son Robbie grapples with a long-standing crush on his high-school-age babysitter Jessica who is smitten with someone substantially older. Meanwhile, Jacob goes through a transformation of his own as he falls for a sassy-smart young lawyer named Hannah who initially doesn't succumb to his fool-proof pick-up lines. All the characters intersect rather conveniently, and needless to say, complications ensue.
Ficarra and Requa have a nice way of shaping Fogelman's dialogue into the pacing of the scenes, but they spend far too long in the middle of the story making the loose ends look more pronounced toward the end. Dexterous performances which effortlessly balance the comic and humane elements are essential to making the shenanigans work, and they're here in spades. Carell mines his character Cal in unexpected ways but doesn't lose his keen sense of comedy. As Jacob, Gosling is a nice surprise as he breezes through a role that could have been far more repellent had love not befuddled him so completely. Stone, currently Hollywood's "It" girl, nicely complements him as the acerbic Hannah, and their extended sequence at his elegant home is really well played by both actors. As Emily, Moore is the rare actress who can play a character who commits an unforgivable act and still can elicit viewer sympathy. Jonah Bobo plays Robbie with deadpan precociousness, while the too-thin Analeigh Tipton fluently brings out all the awkward gawkiness in Jessica. Tomei's turn as Kate is brief albeit a memorable one highlighted by a very funny classroom scene, while Kevin Bacon plays Emily's co-worker with his character's smarminess in check. This is one of the better comedies released this year.