Crazy, Stupid Love (2011)
August 10th, 2011Crazy Stupid Love (USA) Directed by Glenn Ficara; John Requa Written by Dan Fogelman Starring Steve Carrell; Julianne Moore; Ryan Gosling; Analeigh Tipton; Jonah Bobo; Marisa Tomei; Kevin Bacon; John Carroll Lynch; Beth Littleford; Liza Lapira; Josh Groban; Liza Laira
Without Judd Apatow there probably would be no Crazy, Stupid Love. The go to comedy guy re-imagined what R rated comedies should be, and Crazy follows the same basic formula he established in genre melding films like Knocked Up, delving into real life issues in a humorous way.
Directed (but not written by) Glenn Ficara and John Requa, the writing team behind I Love You Phillip Morris (which they also directed) and Bad Santa, Crazy is a romantic comedy of sorts, in the same way that 500 Days of Summer was - a kind of anti-romantic comedy perhaps, but at it’s heart (as the title would imply) this one is about men and women and the way we relate to one another. From a script by Dan Fogelman (Cars 2; Fred Claus) there is nothing new or trenchant happening here, and it is the quality of the acting, and some assured direction, that keeps the film from landing on the wrong side of another multi-character story about love bearing a number of similarities to this one, Love Actually. Like it’s British counterpart (and later films like Valentine’s Day and the upcoming New Years Eve) there are a number of inter-related characters facing relationship/love dilemmas, and no small amount of treacliness and self-satisfaction. Crazy, Stupid Love is a little too filled with coincidences; a little too ironic; and a little too reliant on cliche’d ground covered in many other places, but particularly given the current dire straights of the Hollywood product, there is also much to recommend it.
Playing boring forty four year old father/husband/suburban accountant, Cal, this is probably Steve Carrell’s best dramatic performance. His half-articulated mumbles and trailing thoughts being notably effective as he portrays an average Joe beaten down by his mundane (though privileged) life. Despite his best efforts, Carrell is still not in the same universe as Julianne Moore in the way that a competent actor like Emma Stone, as Hannah, is not residing in the same district as Ryan Gosling, playing Lothario extraordinaire, Jacob. There are nice supporting turns from an underutilized Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei, but regardless of the order of the billing and/or screen time it’s mostly Gosling and Moore’s show.
What separates Crazy, Stupid, Love from the insipid romantic comedies that Hollywood continues to spit out on a regular basis is that it does, ala Apatow, take some chances with tone. The set up is nothing special (to say the least) as Carrell emerges as the Eliza Doolittle to Goslings’s Professor Higgins. The very nature of the storyline thus dictates that there will be learning in the end for all concerned, and the film dutifully follows that path, failing ultimately to veer from the accepted chartered genre course. It’s the amusing stops along the way that count here, however, and the film does contain a number of funny bits.
As was the case with their previous effort, I Love You Phillip Morris, Ficara and Requa, along with British cinematographer Andrew Dunn (Precious; Gosford Park; The Madness of King George), do well with the visuals, elevating the film from the usual flat style typical of comedic fare. In this way the film compares favorably to something like Soderbergh’s The Informant, and at least points to the work of the great PT Anderson, and Alexander Payne, auteur directors with a firm command over the look and tone of their material. Make no mistake, Crazy, Stupid, Love is hardly comparable to any of the films made by those two directors, but there is an obvious attempt here to treat the characters and the look as something more than disposable elements, and with only two films under their belts this directing duo could certainly be considered in the company of someone like Jason Reitman, who is also producing reasonable adult fair for the masses.
There are times when the alchemy of the serious and ridiculous feels strained. Until Funny People, Apatow usually defaulted to his his roots, grounding his characters as human beings, but ultimately leaning toward the comedic moment. In the same way that Funny People tread a precarious line between drama and comedy, Crazy tries to bounce from sincerity to near parody, and that tension is felt throughout. While, theoretically, this creates a more complex bag, it also highlights some very obvious plot construction. There is nothing wrong with sticking to the basic conventions of a particular genre, but there is an inherent problem with a genre as stale as the romantic comedy. When nothing (the twist notwithstanding) is done to push the envelope with plot we’re left with good dialogue, solid visuals, and some excellent actors who are hampered by the complete lack of originality vis-a-vis the storyline.
There is also something disquieting when one invests in characters as real, live people, and they then behave in erratic ways that simply don’t seem entirely true to life. Sometimes going for that easy laugh comes at the expense of the film as a whole, and resorting to some cloying lowest common denominator moments reduces what might have been a special film to something less than that. Though there is an attempt to make this feel like an ensemble piece, the other sub plots (the unrequited love of the babysitter Jessica (Analeigh Tipton) and preternaturally wise son, Robbie (Jonah Bobo), et al) are mostly given short shrift.
Still, while we know exactly where we are going the entire time, there is something to be said for at least using the right ingredients in the stew. Post viewing, one may not be left pondering Crazy, Stupid, Love, but it is undoubtedly a well done diversion.



















