Not Citzen Kane but a thoughtful unexpectedly good movie

Rating: 8/10 (19 November 2011)

Crazy, Stupid, Love is a movie about 3 couples and 2 educations. It is not an ordinary comedy because people are allowed to say and do things which reflects our times and our society more than it does the wishes and dreams of a segment of our society.
Couple Number One ================= Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) and Emily Weaver (Juliette Moore) are out celebrating when he asks her what she would like (thinking the answer might be something like pumpkin pie) when she announces she wants a divorce.
That's quite an opening line for a "comedy."
Because he loves her, he immediately though very reluctantly agrees. He's read all the modern truisms about separation "If you love someone let them go." So he lets her go. All very cold and civilized. But he doesn't respond that way; he's not civilized at all.
Reliable straight arrow Cal has a response that his 13 year old son Robbie (Jonah Bobo) would understand perfectly. He goes to a bar, drinks too much, and announces to the people in the bar just how sad, hurt, unaccepting he really is. He lives the 21st century but he feels the 1950's.
The Educations ============= The education is in two parts. There is Cal's education and then there is Jacob's (delightfully filled out by Ryan Gosling – a terrific actor who can do just about anything). The first one is easy. It is all fantasy. Jacob convinces Cal that there is a method to dealing with women: Right clothes, right lines, right attitude and right tone of voice; that's all it takes. Jacob is shallow, and who knows but his shallow methods might work on a certain type of woman. Cal sees it works like Alternate Medicine. People around you say one thing and Dr. Jacob another. Who's to say Jacob isn't right?
So Cal is a good student. He goes from an uncertain bubbling incompetent to a clone almost as good as Jacob himself. In one of the minor sub plots, he seduces Marisa Tomei who plays her absolute best over the top recovering alcoholic who has bought into our view that sex is therapy. That is the height of Cal's career as 21st century lounge lizard. It also is a wake up call for him. He knows how shallow all of this is.
The second education is that of Jacob, who discovers that for all her brilliance, Hannah, (Cal's oldest daughter played by Emma Stone) is grounded in something far better than meaningless sex. She believes in love and though she is distracted by her reaction to the cold stupidity of a coworker, she is not so blinded that she can't see where Jacob will lead her even though she thinks that's what she wants. Hannah demands underneath that frustration, that Jacob do more than get her fixed. Perhaps because some of Cal's virtue rubs off on him, Jacob realizes he must comply with her values.
The Second Couple ================= This is really intended as either comedy relief or a spoof on the "Nerd" movies.
It is the puppy love of a thirteen year old (Jonah Bobo who plays Robbie Weaver) and his baby sitter (Jessica startlingly well done by Analeigh Tipton). It is a real over the top presentation, but its not unrealistic. It is the way a young teen would act, if not over someone then something. There is commitment, there is enthusiasm, there is desire, there is single mindedness, there is the willingness to do anything it takes to succeed. And there is wisdom. He is smart enough and practical enough that Cal (who both loves and admires Robbie – a rare combination) admits out loud that sometimes Robbie scares him.
In the meantime Jessica is in love with Cal. She's older but really just as inexperienced as Robbie. In our century sex knows no real boundaries (it's love that's the problem), and she's willing to take the advice of a much more knowledgeable "older" woman – a classmate that knows how to deal with "older men." Jessica accepts the advice and does what she is told. The trouble is that she cannot get up the nerve to give what she does to Cal and her parents discover it. That's when parental love comes in contract with sexual ease. Hell hath no fury like an inflamed parent.
Robbie, faithful and very truthful observer that he is, gives up on her. How can he compete when a woman does not recognize him to be on the same playing field? We have just killed the 1930's and 40's notion of one girl many beaus.
The Least Convincing Couple =========================== I was least convinced by Emily and Kevin Bacon. Of all the people in this movie, she learned the least. Once she was convinced how much Cal had learned, how he could cope and how much he was dedicated to the idea of her, she wanted him back. She's Harlequin at its best.
What this movie did =================== The director and actors rejected any notion of anything less than a good strong marriage. With all its troubles and disadvantages it is still our best option. This movie makes any of us who are in committed marriages very uncomfortable because it is bleak and at the same time rich, powerful and yet people get to snivel, it knows its society, yet it dares to choose a value as old as the beginning chapters of Genesis. It shows our vulgarity, but chooses modesty.
Like it or hate it, Crazy, Stupid Love at least has the courage to stand for something that is critical of our revolving divorce door and shallow discontent.