November 2, 2011
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滾攪了愛情
You are my Soulmate.
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(Review by James Berardinelli)Crazy, Stupid, Love. tries to rise abovethe unremarkable level of the generic romantic comedy. In almost every way,from structure to tone to the nature of the love stories, it strives to bemore. And, while all its gambits are notsuccessful, the movie is sufficiently different (within a familiar framework)to earn a recommendation. This is not the ultimate romantic comedy – the onethat makes you fall as hard for the characters as they do for one another whilesavoring their every interaction – but it seems fresher and less recycled thanmuch of the product out there.
Whoever punctuated the title is eithertrying to send a message (which escapes me) or is illiterate. Considering theeducation level of some of the people working in Hollywood, it’s a 50/50proposition. To avoid confusion, I will hereafter refer to the movie simplyasCrazy Stupid Love, leaving out the commas and period.
Crazy Stupid Love is an ensemble not unlikeLove, Actually but with a smaller group of characters and firmer narrativeconnective tissue. One problem is that the script favors certain individualsover others, resulting in screen time inequities for the various romances.There are instances when Crazy Stupid Love focuses exclusively on one couplefor a long stretch of time before seemingly remembering that the story isn’tonly about them. Whether this is a flaw in Dan Fogelman’s screenplay or in theway co-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa interpreted it, it gives themovie an uneven, jumpy flow and can be frustrating for viewers who care mostabout the characters who vanish for lengthy periods of time.
The one constant is Cal (Steve Carrell), aman whose 25-year marriage to high school sweetheart Emily (Julianne Moore)collapses during one horrible evening when she makes two pronouncements: (1)she has slept with another man (Kevin Bacon), and (2) she wants a divorce.Shellshocked, Cal moves out of the house and begins spending his evenings in acocktail longue, looking but not touching. There, he meets lady’s man Jacob(Ryan Gosling), who decides to take the pathetic middle-aged guy under hiswing. He whirls Cal through a makeover montage (not quite as good as thespending spree in Joe vs. the Volcano), teaches him the ropes when it comes topicking up women, then turns him loose. Cal’s first score is a wild, sexyteacher named Kate (Marisa Tomei), but she’s only the first of many. Cal alsounwittingly becomes involved in a romantic triangle featuring his 17-year oldbabysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), and his 13-year old son, Robbie (JonahBobo). Jessica harbors a secret crush on Cal while Robbie’s feelings forJessica are less concealed. Meanwhile, Jacob finds himself hooked on a sassyredhead named Hannah (Emma Stone); he craves her, but she’s having no part ofhim.
Crazy Stupid Love offers two messages. Thefilm espouses the concept that everyone has a single soulmate and the objectivein life is to find that person and build a life with them. This being aromantic comedy, it’s not hard to mix and match the appropriate men and women.Hint: neither Kevin Bacon nor Marisa Tomei ends up with a partner. The moviealso emphasizes that more than love is necessary for a long-term relationshipto work and, even among the most devoted couples, routine and a lack of passioncan dry things up. (Oddly, this is also a central theme in The Change-Up.) TheCal/Emily dynamic is unusual for romantic comedies and, based on the screentime accorded to it, is more important to the filmmakers than the otherrelationships. Having middle-aged, married leads represents a box officechallenge, but those qualities are what make Cal and Emily interesting. They’rewell past the Honeymoon Phase. Their love has fired in the kiln of a quartercentury of togetherness. They have far more at stake than the usual rom-comprotagonists. The Jacob/Hannah pairing is a throw-in for twentysomethings andthe dance between Jessica and Robbie is for teens.
In keeping with his recent careertrajectory toward more serious roles, Steve Carrell is allowed to play Calmostly straight, with the character presented sympathetically rather than asthe butt of a barrage of easy jokes. It wouldn’t be a challenge to transformCal into a caricature, but that would undermine the movie. Julianne Moore is abeautiful woman and she gives a lovely, nuanced performance that exhibitsdifferent levels of pain and regret. It would be fair to say that Moore andCarrell have chemistry, but it’s deeper and more fertile than the combustibletype that exists between most romantic comedy couples. Carrell and Moore aresurrounded by interesting actors. Neither Ryan Gosling nor Emma Stone shineshere, but they fill their roles of the young, madly-in-love couple with aplomb.They are attractive and likeable, and that’s how it’s meant to be. Relativenewcomers Analeigh Tipton and Jonah Bobo effectively navigate the choppy watersof a potentially reciprocated crush between a 13-year old and his babysitter.Finally, Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei make the most of their limited screentime, injecting straight comedy into a movie that occasionally comes close tolosing its sense of humor.
That humor rarely rises above the level ofmild amusement. There is an exception – a brilliantly executed instance ofscrewball comedy – but a lot of the jokes are buried in a surprisingly thicklayer of melodrama. Warner Brothers’ marketing department cherry-picked some ofthe sharpest lines for the trailer, but (in a reversal of what’s often true)they aren’t as funny in context. Crazy Stupid Love’s uncertain marriage ofdramatic elements with comedic ones contributes to the uneven flow.Fortunately, the actors and the emotions they convey are believable enough forthis to succeed as a good-natured, feel-good diversion.
