DVD review: Crazy, Stupid, Love

Everyone's heard of midlife crisis's, you know when men around 50 feel the need to buy a motorbike and use just for men. Well it would appear Steve Carrell's character Cal Weaver in Crazy, Stupid, Love is having just that. The film opens with various shots of people touching each others legs under the table and then we get to Cal's table, no leg touching just a pair of battered New Balance trainers sitting lonely. The mood above the table is not any better, the chemistry Cal and his wife, Emily, have would struggle to fill a small petri dish. It doesn't get any better after finding out his wife, played by Julianne Moore, wants a divorce after she slept with a peer at work. Cal's already emotionless face freeze only for the news to have no effect on him. What ensues is Cal, rather unhumorously, falls out of his car as his wife discusses their divorce and blah blah blah. Its not a particularly gripping first ten minutes, if it aims to bore its audience then it surely achieves its goal.

After Cal moves out he soon finds himself sitting at the same bar every night shouting and raving about his wife and David Lindhagen, played by Kevin Bacon. Soon enough Ryan Gosling's slick, quick witted Jacob offers him a deal, he will help him become a man again. You'd think the introduction of Ryan Gosling, an actor who typically makes a film about 40% better, would succeed in making the story more interesting but no, instead you spend the rest of the film questioning yourself  whether he is gay or not and if he will actually start acting soon. The chemistry between Carrell and Gosling is at times no existent, although it is a pleasure to watch Carrell's Cal attempt to chat up woman with discussions about his wife, David Lindhagen and his children. The funniest parts of the films are down to Cal's son Robbie who is hopelessly in love with his babysitter Jessica who is actually in love with Cal, how funny a love triangle. Robbie's declarations of love for a babysitter four years older are awkwardly funny but still could have been funnier if the writers had cared abit more about their characters. The best aspect of Crazy, Stupid, Love is without doubt the inclusion of Emma Stone who brightens up the comedy instantly and her chemistry with Gosling is the most believable and emotional with belief that these two people are actually involved somehow.

To give away the plot twist that includes a fight on a makeshift mini golf course would be to ruin the film's plot but it doesn't really matter as you will probably be bored by the film by then. At the heart of the film there seems to have been, at one stage at least, a funny idea but between the ideas stage and the creation it got lost somewhere. Disappointing to see talent from the likes of Stone and Gosling wasted, I didn't particularly expect much more from Carrell who lost any credibility he had after Evan Almighty.