Crazy, Stupid, Love

Grade: B

 (I waited way too long before writing about this movie after watching it so this will be a brief review that I figured I should still write because this movie is good and worth watching)

Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s Crazy, Stupid, Love is a funny movie. It’s also a very accessible movie as its essentially fun for the whole family humor. Well as long as you are fine with your kids understanding that Ryan Gosling uses the move from Dirty Dancing to get girls to sleep with him. What I mean by accessible is that just about anyone can appreciate this movie. It’s very much like Easy A in that while it still has that studio gloss all over it (cliché storylines, sappy trying too much to be more than just a comedy moments, and visually just looking like a studio movie) it is self aware enough to give even the super serious film buffs something to enjoy. There is this moment when Ryan Gosling is telling Emma Stone about how he usually gets chicks to sleep with him, and the whole time I’m thinking “ugh this is going to be either sappy or dumb” and then he says “I tell them I can do the move from Dirty Dancing.”The movie knew people like me would be skeptical of that moment, so they drew us in in cliché fashion only to surprise us with a twist. Also like Easy A it would make a great first date movie as it has things both parties could enjoy. Honestly if it wasn’t for the kind of serious divorce and cheating thing going on between Julianne Moore and Steve Carell’s characters I might say this is the perfect date movie because of the following things:

A.      It has Ryan Gosling: A year or so ago I would say this is a bad thing, because women love Ryan Gosling and he makes men look inferior by comparison (as Emma Stone says in this “Oh come on, it’s like your photoshopped!”) without making up for it by being awesome by males standards. But then he was in Drive, and kicked boat loads of ass so now men can respect him too. It’s a win-win and speaking of win-wins…

B.      This movie has Emma Stone: Men have loved Emma and her “funny yet still sexy” dry wit ever since Superbad. She’s like the kind of girl you could crack jokes and hang out with, and she would come back with her own jokes that are probably better than yours. Women also seem to really like Emma Stone. Just go look at The Helps box office numbers for proof of that. Really a lot of women just want to be Emma Stone because she seems like the bee’s knees.

C.      It has light humor: Humor is a good way to a girl’s heart. Dark humor usually is not. You may find Fargo hilarious but she may not and that risk is definitely not worth taking on a first date.

D.      It has Steve Carell in it: Steve Carell is right up there with Paul Rudd as far as most universally likable guys in Hollywood. Also Steve Carell could lead to conversations about how much both of you like The Office which could be a really good thing because: A. it could lead to conversations of other great shows you both like and B. if you are charming enough she might start to associate you with Jim Halpert and if she loves The Office she is also madly in love with Jim Halpert. High potential there.

E.       It looks kind of like a chick flick from the previews: This will earn you guys points because it will make you look like the kind of guy who appreciates a chick flick. Then you will get even more points for liking it because you will. It’s not a chick flick though. Just a movie that got marketed like one

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So there you go. I don’t know really why I said that last part because I am not an expert on dates or women in any way, but in my mind this all makes perfect sense.

If there is one thing about this movie I didn’t enjoy it’s that it has a bad case of the precocious child syndrome. It seems like every movie now has some kid in it that is wise beyond his years and through his logic ends up knowing more about life than the adults. The idea of a child knowing more about life than an adult is completely absurd yet for some reason in the movies they seem to think it makes perfect sense. I think they do it because a lot of people find it funny or cute. So it’s going to continue happening but it bugs me a lot. This movie also gets a bit too sappy at times, but it’s acceptable because there is plenty of funny stuff in it.

So in summation: it’s a funny movie, that’s really universal, has a really appealing cast, and I think would make a good date movie. You should probably watch it.