A Kind of Love between Crazy and Stupid

Rating: Null/10 (4 November 2011)

The title for this film is a solid choice: CRAZY, STUPID LOVE is. Thought he reviewers and the general public alike seem to rank this as one of the greatest films of the decade, for some other viewers this seems tired and trite and a faux showcase for some excellent actors to overcome a tawdry story. Writer Dan Fogelman (Cars, Cars 2, Tangled, Bolt, Fred Claus, etc) may be taking a step up form his previous work and that is a good sign, but when directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have shown their sensitivity in the much maligned if not sadly ignored treasure 'I Love You, Philip Morris' it feels odd they should go for this script.
Difficult to classify as a Romance or Comedy or Drama the film falls into the familiar category of a RomCom. Opening a film with an embarrassingly public announcement of a marriage dissolution over a wife's infidelity and dissatisfaction with her nerdy but good father/provider husband this story embraces about every situation about falling in and out of 'love' imaginable. The idea of a monogamous clueless husband being 'changed' by a smooth talking, much bedded lothario isn't new nor is the 'finally met his match' idea fresh. The manner in which the children of the couple respond with their own needs and damaged outlooks on relationships works OK, but the manner in which the in the process of divorcing couple work through their problems holds a mirror up to today's marriages. The stories surround us in everyday life: the film merely magnifies them.
It is always amazing when the marquee boasts the names of some of our more interesting actors as being involved: Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Bacon, et al deliver what they can. The 'star' is Steve Carell according to the script, and you have to like the caricatures he creates to relate to him here. There are some fine turns in cameos by Emma Stone, young Jonah Bobo, and Liz Lapira; when they are on screen the film lightens up. But in the end it is a two hour formulaic condensed television series type story. And yet the Bravos form the audience must mean there is a craving for this type movie.
Grady Harp