Crazy Stupid Love

 

 

Back in college there was a wonderful little movie theater about 15 minutes from campus off of 741. The place was called Kendig Square Cinema and it was a multiplex that showed second run movies. It was a great way to spend an evening and it only cost 2 dollars a showing. This past weekend I was out near Lancaster and decided to find my way back to that theater and catch a movie that somehow eluded me throughout the summer. The dingy atmosphere, the sound of the projector rolling, the front theater speakers, and old seating were a trip down memory lane and on top of that, I saw a great little film that deserves a ton of attention.

I suppose one could dismiss my affinity for the film as me being swept up in the nostalgia of the day but I would declare those people off base. Crazy Stupid Love is an intelligent romantic comedy that manages to pull the rare feat of being both romantic AND comedic.

We've all been in love- or at least felt like we were- at some point in our lives. In those moments of romance we are tunnel visioned into thinking that nothing will ever go wrong. The ones we love will always love us, or return the favor, and once you are in it, you never have to experience what it feels like to not be in it again. Of course that is a bit of a pipe dream because love sometimes (unfortunately) doesn't last. This movie focuses on what happens in those moments. How does one put back together the pieces when the thing that they thought shaped their point of view has been destroyed?

Cal Weaver (Steve Carrell) is married to his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) and has three kids. One day she suddenly says she wants a divorce and Cal's life is tossed into disarray. He doesn't believe the news and neither do his kids. Trying to recover from this he ends up spending multiple nights in an upscale lounge talking to himself after his awkward failed attempts to chat with women. In general, opening with, "My wife left me," isn't a good thing. While at the bar one night Cal is spotted by Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling) who takes pity on Cal and decides to impart his wisdom onto him. For Jacob, love is a thing best kept far away from. He sees women as conquests and spends his nights talking his way into women's pants. (And because he looks like Ryan Gosling it comes easy for him).

Jacob gets Cal a new wardrobe and gives him the tools he feels one needs in order to score with women. Cal, despite his best efforts to mess it up, works his magic on Kate (Marisa Tomei) one night at the bar by hitting her with the line that, "(She) is the perfect mix of hot and cute." It's a good line and I'm sure some women would be enthralled to be told that. Problem is that it is a line that Cal has used before in his life which comes back to haunt him.

Further complicating manners are the fact that Cal's 13 year old son Robbie is in love with his 17 year old babysitter, who is in love with Cal. For Robbie, he feels grand gestures are the best way to win a woman's heart. It's a method that I've tried in the past but it is one that you need to figure out how the girl feels about you first. If she isn't interested you just come off creepy. Robbie's babysitter, gets advice from a girl at school about her own grand gesture for Cal but because she is not totally sold on the idea it comes off poorly. Robbie and his babysitter have similar trappings. They want to be in love and they have what they think it is, but they are being fooled by the idea of being in love and not love itself. This causes their actions to take some wild detours. 

Jacob gets his world turned upside down when he meets a girl at the lounge named Hannah (Emma Stone) who resists his advances. This confuses Jacob. He only knows success and having someone deflect his advances offers a sense of intrigue and appeal. It is only natural that he is intensely drawn to the one girl he can't have. This also sends Jacob on the opposite path as Cal. Both are moving because of love, but in different directions. When you add in all the other side stories moving in opposite directions it can only lead to the inevitable spot where all the stories crash into each other and the viewer gets the entire puzzle shown to them. This isn't a mystery by any stretch but when you realize what exactly is happening it catches you off guard and asks you to reflect on your own beliefs about what has happened up to that point. 

The most refreshing part about this story is that it is written as an adult love story for adults. The characters are not treated stupidly here. They do dumb things but it isn't some plot contrived event, it happens because they are following their heart blindly and not listening to reason. Anyone who has ever felt love can identify with that. Essentially what you have here is a film that focuses on love and then looks at it from multiple genders, ages, and perspectives. You are bound to find someone to connect with here. That alone is an achievement because too often these films paint characters in unflattering light. Here we have a movie littered with sympathetic characters. Even David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon) who has the affair with Emily is painted with a soft brush. He isn't some co-worker prowling over some married woman. She was looking to cheat and needed attention and David happened to be there at the right time for that to happen.

Up and down this film there are nothing but great performances. Carrell finds a sweet balance between a man hopeful and desperate to keep together what he has. Moore and Bacon play their parts well. Tomei is all spastic energy and her scenes are some of the funniest in the film. Emma Stone is a fantastic actress and as long as she doesn't shoot herself off the rails she will be one of the best actresses of her generation. The real find here is Gosling though. He finds good spaces for this part and infuses a lecherous man with enough heart and goodwill that you are on his side. You want to be in the bar watching him at work and as a guy with little luck with women, I wish I could be as smooth as him.

This is a great little film and I encourage you to find this in theaters yet or catch it on television. It is a breezy way to spend two hours.

Life As We Know It

The romantic comedy genre has its share of fans but also has a huge share of detractors. If you watch them enough you can easily see why they are enjoyed by some and annoy others. They are formulaic and always driving towards putting the two main characters together in the film. On one hand that idea of people finding "true love" and getting together is a nice sentiment. Most of the fairy tales that permeate our culture operate on similar principles (well most of the Disney versions of those fairy tales anyway). However it is that same premise that causes the derision. Once someone has seen a few they know all the beats of the genre. One movie to the next is similar- boy and girl meet, they are perfect for each other but don't know it yet, something happens where they realize they are and they begin dating, something happens that makes them question the relationship, they have a moment of awakening and they end up together, everyone lives happily ever after. So I understand why people might not like that, and for a long time I sort of focused on it as well. To me though, what makes a romantic comedy good or bad is the two people playing the lead characters. Two actors with no chemistry is the kiss of death for these films. Sometimes the script treats them like dummies and makes them completely unlikable. Still in the end, if I like the characters I generally like the film.

A weeks ago on Facebook I made a snide comment about Life As We Know It stating, "Life As We Know It starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel is almost 2 hours long. Is there even a small chance that movie is any good?" A few of my female friends responded that they really enjoyed the film. Mentally I sort of wrote that off as a woman thing and gave up. However, it was still on HBO on Demand and my curiosity got the best of me regarding the film. 

From the first scene I was concerned about the film. Holly (Katherine Heigl) and Eric (Josh Duhamel) get their disastrous first date out of the way before the opening credits. At the end of the scene Holly calls her friend that set them up and says to her, "You can make it up to me by making sure I never see him again." The very next scene is a birthday party for the little girl in the film and both Holly and Eric are there. Clearly this scene is happening after the first one and immediately it undercuts the character of Holly. If she was so furious about the date and issued her ultimatum why would she only have mild revulsion to Eric's character in the next scene. I mean, the guy tried to set up a booty call in front of her on their date. I don't know much about women, but I do know that many would not act rationally to this course of action. Furthermore, it's pretty clear that Holly and Eric knew each other before the date so it is odd that either one would've expected the other to be any different than they actually were. Who did they think they were going on a date with? If this would've lead to some premise where they had dopplegangers out there and acting differently it would've been great. Alas they didn't go that route.

From there the film goes into one of the darker and weirder premises for a romantic comedy/dramedy. Holly and Eric's mutual friends are killed in a car accident leaving behind the little girl. The parents left Holly and Eric as the legal guardians in their will. Holly and Eric have no idea about this. Who would possibly leave someone as the legal guardian of their child and then not tell that person? Did they do it mere seconds before they were killed not leaving them the ability to alert their friends. Also, if you know the two friends hate each other as much as they do why would you stipulate that they work together to raise a kid? Even with those complaints though, I found the premise here fascinating. I mean this is a romantic comedy where the characters are joined by death. Fascinating that someone would think of that and pitch it as a film.

In spite of this initial inanity, I found myself mildly enjoying the film as it moved along. There are absolutely they completely predictable spots where the two new parents have no idea how to do things. There are scenes where they try to embarrass each other in the presence of the others in the neighborhood. There are silly scenes that have no semblance of reality. I don't care how well you know someone there is no way you would make a taxi driver babysit your kid for an extended period of time. Also there is some terrible dialogue sprinkled throughout. Often it is in the lines that are supposed to be comedy. There is a scene where the baby takes a poop in her diaper (because what romantic comedy doesn't need scatological humor) and Holly and Eric open the diaper and begin gagging. Eric's response is, "Ohhhh, it smells like Slumdog Millionaire in there." What the hell does that line even meaning. First off, the line has a bit of a racist undertone. Secondly, why wouldn't you just say, "Ohhhh, it smells like indian food"? Why would someone name the title of a movie as what it smells like? What does that even mean? It's a terrible line and really has no place in the film.

In the end though I enjoyed the film on some level because- going back to my viewing habits on these films- Duhamel and Heigl are having fun in the film and they do have some level of chemistry here. Heigl is getting too comfortable in these roles but she does radiate a certain energy and Duhamel really does feel like a normal person in this film instead of the caricature most guys are written as. There is a movie inside of here that would've been vastly entertaining but instead they went with the tried and true romantic comedy formula instead of branching outward. I wouldn't highly recommend the film, but as romantic comedies go- I've seen far worse.