It is an enjoyable movie for most part until the writers gave up leaving the stars to carry it on their own.

Rating: 7/10 (13 November 2012)

The build up, humor and chemistry between characters was so good in the first half, the remainder felt like watching a totally different movie with generic writing that just runs through the motions. While talking about the good parts, it is remotely inspired by a subtle combination of 2 iconic movies of the genre - 'American Beauty' and 'Love Actually' with performances inching close to the former.
Cal (Steve Carell) has just been asked for divorce from his wife of 25 years Emily (Julianne Moore). His son Robbie (13) is infatuated by his babysitter Jessica (17) who in-turn has feelings for Cal. Emily is reluctantly seeing her colleague David (Kevin Bacon) while Cal meets a mysterious young womanizer in a bar Jacob (Ryan Gosling) who teaches him how to loosen up and get score girls, Cal makes decent use of it. When Jacob meets an interesting but nerdy girl Hannah (Emma Stone) and decides to put an end to his ways and meet her parents, all hell breaks loose. My synopsis has taken a bit of effort to finish both from my side as well as yours (if you haven't taken a nosedive midway), well that is how the characters are linked and I have not included all. The story is about these relationships blended with slightly intentional dark humor. More than the script it is the performances that make it work. Be it the comic timing, just the beauty of watching them or the emotional depth (nah). Like I mentioned earlier, had the second half been handled with a bit more care and some innovation, it would have become an instant classic. The first half makes smart references of contemporary verbiage, Carell's unique histrionics and giving enough screen time for rest of the superb cast portraying well developed characters. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone continues to shine in every endeavor they take up. The kid who plays Robbie is very entertaining. The background score, cinematography and editing does not deserve any special mention here.
It is an enjoyable movie for most part until the writers gave up leaving the stars to carry it on their own.