Crazy Stupid Love Review: It's crazy, stupid AWESOME!

By Spence Blazak

Going into this, I was all ready to have the lead off of my review be "Seeing Crazy Stupid Love is a crazy stupid idea!" And yet... I didn't hate it. I know. Alert the New Yorker. Tell the Prime Minister. The rumors are true: a romantic comedy has finally come out that Spence Blazak is dubbing "not that bad".

First things first, I'll discuss the movie, its flaws and successes, and then I'll discuss the art of the rom-com and why this is a surprisingly strong showing in the genre (especially compared to the majority of the ones released in the last 4 years like Did You Hear About the Morgans?, The Hottie and the Nottie, and Just Wright.)

Love begins with Steve Carell's wife of many years (Julianne Moore) admitting that she has been making whoopie with Kevin Bacon and asks him for a divorce. Dejected, he moves out and copes with his new found spare time by going to a high end bar. He sulks and drunkenly laments his situation to the bar's patrons. THEN it happens. From across the room, professional womanizer Ryan Gosling sees Carell, calls him over, and vows to teach him the way of the "playa." Think Hitch, but you don't spend the film's entirety wishing for a large jungle cat to drag off all the characters to its cave.

Basically, Love's strength is that it doesn't dismally fail in any of the categories that make a successful rom-com. There are several important chemistries in the movie: Carell and Moore; Carell and Gosling; Carell and Marissa Tomei; Gosling and Emma Stone, and all of them succeed in that they aren't annoying. The first and most important rule to any romantic comedy is that you must be able to stand the characters enough so that you won't hate them when they fall in love. Psychological warfare at its finest. Somehow, every relationship here is at least a little bit likable, the essential trait for a rom-com.

This also stems from the performances. While the script is just fine, Carell and Gosling find a way to surpass it, milking a laugh from even the dopiest of lines. The scenes where Carell is learning the art of being smooth, and then the ensuing scenes of him womanizing/getting laid are absolutely hilarious. Not even in an unintentional way, just straight up funny. Yes, I was as shocked as you are. Julianne Moore does a good job in making you hate her, and then kind of getting you to forgive her in the end. Marissa Tomei, Kevin Bacon, and the rest of the ensemble do a good job complimenting the leads, and across the board, the comedic timing is impeccable. Even when the dialogue isn't particularly funny, you will find yourself guffawing. Great acting brings out the best of the decent script.

Another important test that it passes is "The Date Movie Effect". It means that being on a date whilst seeing the movie usually amplifies your opinion of it, if it is initially positive. I'll give some personal examples. I saw No Strings Attached on a date, and right afterward if you had polled me on my opinion of it, I'd have said 5 out of 4 stars, while in reality, it is a 2 1/2 star-er. This is not a bad thing. Bridesmaids I saw on a date, and I was in a bad mood going in. I hated it in the first place, but even if I hadn't been on the date, I am positive that l still would have hated it. While I didn't see Love on a date (.....don't judge me), it is clearly a member of that first group.

Going into the last 20 minutes, I was ready to drop a 3-and-a-half star review on this puppy, but sadly, the absurdly uplifting ending kills the tone of the rest of the movie, and causes the schlock value to go off the charts. It is enough to knock the movie down a peg. I felt like the movie not only sold out, but sold itself short. It could have been something moderately special, but instead it shall remain in the group of rom-coms that I've deemed "Not That Bad". Don't feel too bad Love, it is a big deal to make it even this far.

The thing with judging romantic comedies is that there are 3 main levels of them: The Excellent, The Not Too Bad, and The Unbearable (most romcoms). Some lean slightly more one way than the other, but you'd be surprised how well those 3 groups work. If a 4 star rom-com is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and a 1 star is Beastly or She's Out of My League, I'll happily give this a 3 out of 4 star review. It will work well for your last second date that you forgot to plan.