Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
8/30/11
Of
all the bits and pieces of the human experience, we can all agree on a
few, and one is that love sucks at least twice as often as it’s awesome.
But when it’s awesome, it’s really awesome, and therein, in one form or
another, lies the central dilemma of most of our lives. Crazy,
Stupid, Love., the new movie from directors Glenn Ficara and John Requa
and writer Dan Fogelman, does an uncommonly good job expressing the many
facets of love: its power to lift up and redeem as well as its cruel
tendency to come calling when moving Heaven and Earth themselves will not
make it work. Filled with solid performances by a great cast even
when it lacks much in the way of dramatic momentum, Love is the
latest in an increasingly long line of solid starring vehicles for Steve
Carrell and diverse character roles by Ryan Gosling. Emma Stone continues
her current winning streak and former America’s Next Top Model contestant
Analeigh Tipton makes a stunning breakthough in her first major role.
Crazy,
Supid, Love. is a movie for fans of good acting who know what it feels
like to get their hearts broken. In other words, just about everybody.
Cal
(Steve Carrell) is out to dinner with his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) when
she springs some bad news: she wants a divorce. Shocked into
despair, he’s quick to throw in the towel and move out, meaning split custody
of their two kids, 13-year-old Robbie (Jonah Bobo) and little Molly (Joey
King). They also split the use of the family babysitter, 17-year-old
Jessica (Analeigh Tipton) who, the night of Emily’s announcement had the
misfortune of walking in on Robbie in a compromising situation that inspired
him to declare his undying love for her. Jessica’s nursing a crush
of her own, a love for Cal she feels she must make a move on now that he’s
suddenly single. Cal takes to spending his nights at a singles bar
ranting about David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon), the co-worker Emily cheated
on him with, who now sees an opportunity to take that relationship to the
next level. Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a master ladies’ man who spends
just enough time in the bar each night to take another hottie home with
him, makes Cal an offer. Because he “reminds him of someone”, the
young player offers to help Cal reclaim his lost manhood by teaching him
the tricks of the trade. It works: soon Cal is engaging in
one night stands with girls like Kate (Marisa Tomei) who, unbeknownst to
him, is one of Robbie’s teachers. Meanwhile, Jacob has a fateful
hookup with a girl named Hannah (Emma Stone), who he’d pursued but never
been able to land. Very much unlike his usual conquests, Hannah allows
him to experience something he never has before: connectedness.
Soon, they’re a real couple while Cal tries to rekindle things with Emily
and Jessica takes some very bad advice form the School Tramp (Julianna
Guill) about the best way to win his heart (it involves nude photos).
There’s a whole lot of powder lying around this romantic landscape and
somebody is about to light the match.
Longtime
readers of the site know I’m a ridiculously huge fan of Steve Carrell’s
work: the guy just oozes empathy and vulnerability in a way that
makes it seem like the romantic comedy genre was invented specifically
for him. And that’s doubly important here because the central Cal/Emily
breakup drama is actually the movie’s weakest component. She’s selfish,
he’s a quitter and a wuss, and while Carrell elevates the material (watch
what he does at the end with one of the lamest of romantic comedy tropes,
the Unexpected Public Speech Where You Pour Out Your Heart), Moore (never
at her best in this genre), don’t have as much luck. She’s a very
self-contained screen presence, and I just never feel like she NEEDS someone
enough to connect me with that relationship. But the Carrell/Gosling
dynamic, on the other hand, is as intriguing as all get-out, in large part
because of the movie’s skillful slight of hand when it comes to making
Jacob so cool you don’t notice how obviously empty and miserable he is.
And the chain of events by which he finds himself taking avowed good girl
Hannah home, and the way her total unfamiliarity with the ins and outs
of one night stands brings his façade crashing down, is all very
fresh and effective. Stone and Gosling are both tremendous at projecting
intelligence on screen, so they’re great choices to deconstruct romcom
archetypes.
But
for all the fine work by veteran stars, the part of the movie I most connected
with was the one driven by two young actors I’d never seen before.
Fogelman has constructed the Cal/Jessica/Robbie non-triangle to perfection
precisely because the average romcom Love That’s Not Meant To Be ultimately
leaves you with a twinge of “so and so #1 should have taken one for the
team and just pretended to love so and so #2 because they really loved
them!”. But in this case, it’s obvious that a 13-year-old can’t end
up with a 17-year-old any more than she can end up with a 40-something,
so we’re really free to explore the dynamics of unrequited love without
sitting there shouting “requite that love, dammit!” Bobo is great
with the childish naiveté that makes Robbie assume that the bigger
and more humiliating his expressions of love for Jessica are, the more
likely to win her heart. And Tipton is just sensational, seeming
practically short of breath throughout for the weight of her feelings bearing
down on her. And the way the 23-year-old affects the body language
of an insecure teen is very impressive: adults cast as teenagers
very rarely are able to deage their physicality in that way. She’s
really an actress to watch. *****SPOILER ALERT!***** And the
biggest kuddo in a brilliantly structured subplot has to go to the note
upon which it ends: is it possible to conceive of the act of an older
girl handing a 13-year-old boy an envelope of nude photos of herself making
me cry? But so skillful are Tipton and Bobo in that scene that you
can really feel the act of her acknowledging to him their kinship in having
been crazy for impossible love by passing the symbol of her humiliation
on to him. And in a genre that’s reliant on predictable beats, that’s
a moment I certainly never saw coming. *****END OF SPOILERS*****
Crazy,
Stupid, Love. is often aimless in the middle before a nicely concealed
twist puts a new spin on all we’ve see at the turn to the third act.
But when it’s good, it’s very, very good, filled with rare insight and
impeccably acted. And I suspect it’ll stick with me longer than a
lot of better structured comedies. I’ll certainly think a lot about
it the next time I get my heart stomped on, and you know that can’t be
too far away. |
