Less kid love, more adult love

Rating: 7/10 (22 July 2012)

This film should've gotten 10 stars. My only problem with it is it spent too much time focusing on the 13-year-old boy and his 17-year-old babysitter. It was amusing at the beginning of the movie but overdone for the rest, and all of those scenes could've been stripped to get to the good parts. I will forever be a fan of Steve Carell because of "The Office" and regardless of Michael Scott being removed from the TV show, Carell is just all kinds of funny. I never knew who Ryan Gosling was before seeing him on "The Notebook" (and a co-worker telling me a guy who looked like him from a side profile asked her out -- made me wonder, "Why in the world would you say no to that?") but after that movie, I decided to check out his other work. "Crazy, Stupid, Love" was in the 2012 MTV Movie Awards for Best Kiss ("Twilight" one although after seeing this film I think "Crazy, Stupid, Love" should have) and I was wondering why Emma Stone was dripping wet and running in a bar. I got my answer and I rewound that entire scene (from the bar to the bed) four times. I liked Ryan Gosling paying the down-home character in "The Notebook" and like Michael Ealy, I just didn't take him as much of a comical character. But like Ealy did in "Common Law," Gosling pulled it off, slaps included. I didn't just watch the bar-to-bedroom scenes for the romantic parts. I watched it again and again because Gosling's and Stone's comedic lines were as good as their flirting ones. Same goes for watching them at the beginning of the movie with the lawyer jokes and terrible pick-up lines. I had zero sympathy for Julianne Moore's character Emily Weaver, but I'm always entertained by Marisa Tomei (been a fan of her work since she played Maggie Lauten on "A Different World" and later on with "My Cousin Vinny").
Great movie. I'd watch it again and fast forward past all the babysitter stalking. By the way, Carell looked HOT in this movie and I don't mean good looking. I mean "where's the air conditioner" hot. He really was wearing way too many clothes. The "scuba" line cracked me up.