A rip-roaring, romantic roundelay
Crazy, Stupid, Love
Direction: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa
Actors: Steve Carell, Julianne Moore
Rating: ****
Here, at last, is a romantic comedy that’s actually worth celebrating. Bursting with dialogue that’s fresh and funny, Crazy, Stupid, Love. is as engaging and heartwarming as the vintage screwball laugh-raisers.
At the pivot of the note-perfect screenplay is a complacent couple (Carell-Moore) whose 25-year marriage falls apart when the wife announces that she wants a divorce. She also confesses to having had an affair with a gormless accountant (Kevin Bacon).
Shell-shocked by his wife’s infidelity, the sad sack husband drowns his sorrows at a local watering hole. Enter the bar’s resident Lothario (Ryan Gosling, investing his role with brio). Initially hesitant (“Should I help you or euthanise you?”), the suave womaniser lures the newly separated family man into a series of one-night escapades.
While revitalising the rom-com formula, writer-directors Ficarra and Requa (I Love You, Phillip Morris) manage to retain empathy for the multi-generational characters.
Count among them the couple’s lovelorn 13-year-old son, his slightly older babysitter (newcomer Analeigh Tipton) and an attractive lawyer (Emma Stone) whose seduction scene with the ladies’ man is the piece de resistance of the film.
Snags: The speech at the school’s graduation ceremony veers into Bollywood potboiler territory. Also, the backyard brawl involving the entire family plus a surprise reveal is farcical.
Ultimately, it’s the emotional commitment of Steve Carell and the woefully underrated Julianne Moore that are the film’s trump card. Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei fetches up as the shrill English teacher.
{{/usCountry}}Ultimately, it’s the emotional commitment of Steve Carell and the woefully underrated Julianne Moore that are the film’s trump card. Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei fetches up as the shrill English teacher.
{{/usCountry}}Fun time matinee guaranteed.