Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Rating: 8/10 (11 January 2012)

After their ill-fated director debut, I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS (2009), duo filmmakers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa comes back with this sleeper hit in the lukewarm summer last year, it is a G-rated rom-com, composed of run-of-the-mill scenarios, but exquisitely draws me head over heels for it.
It took 6 years for Steve Carell to upgrade his 40-year-old-virgin status to a 44-year-old- loyal-husband honor, whose sexual object has remained as singular form with his soulmate (then high-school sweetheart, now the wife for 22 years, who is submerging into a quotidian middle age crisis). Steve exudes a tremendous bent of poker-face acting in this film, flavored with a whiff of sarcastic and knowing jokes; it is also a delight to embrace Julianne Moore back to a mainstream rom com since LAWS OF ATTRACTION (2004), her role is well-measured and no one will ever doubt her capacity to be competent for it. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone pair suffers from a shorter screen time for their corresponding story about an invincible womanizer meets the girl of his life; but Gosling has the qualification to stride swaggeringly in the Hollywood now because his filmography proves that he is the next George Clooney with a much earlier inception (judging fairly by his three films coming in 2010). There are a third love lateral in the film, a 13-year-old boy's puppy love, could have been a filler, but owing to youngster Jonah Bobo's precocious strain, it parallels immaculately with the main artery. Another two big names here Marisa Tomei and Kevin Bacon, the former's short appearance is the most hysterical part of the film and the latter is unworthily unprepossessing.
Near ⅔ of the film, there is a sterlingly concocted plot twist which could be a gratifying surprise, which attests not only Dan Fogelman's well-structured script but Ficarra-Requa's ingenuity as well, I have seen a budding spark from this worn-out genre of Hollywood film industry.