Crazy, Stupid, Love.

⭐ 6.5/10

(Originally written by Tim)

I had to google the correct title here, and first off, its losing half a star for all the punctuation. What is that.

This movie had some hilarious moments, and some pretty memorable scenes, but I have mainly complaints here. First and foremost, the cast is completely stacked, but it feels like the most central character is the terrible son with the bad haircut. We get maybe 5 minutes of Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling burning my TV up with their chemistry, but we get countless scenes of this perverted kid delivering terrible lines and being moody. Was honestly shocked by how much screen time they gave this kid.

Second, if Steve Carell is dressed nicely, does that make him hot? I understand he is a total silver fox now, but this is The Office era Steve. I can't imagine that after a divorce women flock to him in a bar, even with his Gosling-trained confidence.

Finally, there are some plot lines that don't hold up great here. A high school girl who is in love with the dad of the kids she babysits, to the point of sending him nudes? Cutting it a little close to the line. But even with everyone struggling with their romances I didn't think they put the characters in interesting positions. He sleeps with the teacher and then has to go to parent-teacher interview with his ex-wife? We can do better.

Now I will admit this movie had a twist I did not see coming at all, and felt kind of stupid that I didn't, and was pretty delighted by it. But instead of ending there you go through another 15 minutes of soul searching until the terrible finale at a middle-school graduation. Like all comedies it does not need to be 2 hours, and would be better served just ending 15 minutes early when everything has been tied up instead of doubling down on the conflict right at the end.

For a movie that is trying to say a lot about love, it made me feel kind of depressed about society's views on marriage and romance. I'd like to rate this higher just because Ryan Gosling is criminally attractive and makes me feel like less of a man. Or maybe that's why I rated it so low. I'll let you be the judge.