Secondhand Reviews: "Crazy, Stupid, Love"

Rated PG-13 for strong language, sexual situations, and alcohol use.

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We've all seen misleading trailers: ads that convince you that a movie is one particular thing, causing you to go and see it on that basis, and once you do you get the surprise of your life because it turns out to be another thing entirely. "Crazy, Stupid, Love" is the best example of this that I've seen in the past several years: based on all the trailers I expected this to be a silly, light, fluffy romcom that might turn out to be fairly enjoyable but was certainly not going to be anything even remotely real or serious. It was almost enough to make me think I'd wandered into the wrong theatre when the film got going. Could this possibly be the same movie?

At least the basic premise was accurately conveyed by the trailers. Steve Carrell plays a man whose wife (Jullianne Moore) has told him she wants a divorce after admitting to an affair with a co-worker (played by the ever-present Kevin Bacon). He goes into a downward spiral of depression until he encounters a classic ladies' man (Ryan Gosling) who takes him under his wing and shows him how to be appealing to new women, something he hasn't had to think about in decades. But even though Gosling succeeds, things aren't so simple for Carrell... or for Gosling, either, when he finally meets the woman (Emma Stone) who makes him start thinking about getting serious and changing his love them and leave them ways.

This is light years away from being a fluffy little romcom. It's a surprisingly serious examination of a marriage that could be falling apart, the emotional trauma this causes both partners and what they might be willing to do to put things back together again. It also has some very funny moments, and a few scattered scenes of purely silly nonsense... but those are mostly what you would call comic relief, inserted in order to keep the story from getting too grim. I think it's still safe to call the film a comedy, but it's a much more somber one than you've been led to expect, and that's actually to its credit... it's a more substantial movie as a result, with more opportunities for its fine cast to give some genuine performances instead of just mugging at the camera.

This is the Steve Carrell of "Dan In Real Life", not the one of "Date Night"... when he's down, he's truly depressed and struggling, just like his character really would be going through his situation, and you really worry and care about him. Same goes for Julianne Moore. Love, as some songs tell you, is not a game, and it isn't portrayed as such here. Ryan Gosling makes for a multifaceted ladies' man character with more depth than a lighter comedy would give him, and it's rather easier to believe he could change once he encounters Stone (who is as wonderful as usual). And as I said, it's still a long way from being a stone-faced tragedy. Plenty to laugh at here too, particularly Marissa Tomei, terrific as a semi-psychotic teacher who Carrell dates briefly during his separation from Moore, and a full-fledged battle royale that breaks out on the lawn at Carrell & Moore's home when all the characters (including Bacon and many others) all come together. That last is a comedy classic.

I'll admit that I wondered about the necessity of the sub-plot featuring Carrell's 13-year-old son and his crush on his 17-year-old baby sitter. Possibly it was inserted to make the movie a bit more appealing to younger audiences and increase the box office among that demographic? in any event, it wasn't needed... the kid isn't all that interesting, and the sub-plot adds excess running time to the film so that what would have been a great 90 to 95 minutes becomes a merely very good two hours. it also leads to one of the few flat-out cliched scenes in the film: the son's 8th grade graduation ceremony, in which his disillusioned "there is no such thing as love" speech is interrupted by Carrell and leads into one of those moments that too many comedies feel the need to conclude with: the totally unrealistic speech that would have been cut short after a few seconds in real life and that leads to every plot thread getting tied neatly together in the next few minutes, just like in a sitcom. This movie is too good and too intelligent to have to depend on a conclusion like that.

However, ultimately, the fact that it is a good film and an intelligent one is what saves it when moments like that threaten to take it down the wrong path. I have often wished that more comedies dealing with romance would acknowledge the difficulties and emotional upsets that it can cause and not just be 90 minutes of pure sunshine (after all, you CAN make a movie like that which is still funny, like a comedy is supposed to be). 2008's "Definitely, Maybe" was brave enough to do that, and now we finally have another movie following that one's example. I don't think that "Crazy, Stupid, Love" is quite as good as that one, but is a fine movie in its own right that is at least worthy of being mentioned in the same breath. And that is no small thing.