Seriously, this film is sweet and funny and all the rest but Ryan Gosling is the hottest I have ever seen him. As Emma Stone quite rightly says "F***!! It's like you've been photoshopped!"
Right, on to actually reviewing the film and not Goslings physique.
As I said it is sweet and funny in equal measure, but also quite sad. The film focuses on the breakdown of a marriage and subsequent effect on the different family members. The marriage in question is between Steve Carell and Julianne Moore, with Ryan Gosling as the ladies man guru who takes Carell under his wing, and Kevin Bacon as the 'other man'.
For those familiar with Carell's back catalogue you will know he is a versatile actor, able to do the more serious roles (Little Miss Sunshine) and the most bizarre characters (Anchorman). His role as Cal Weaver in this movie is more reminiscent of Dan In Real Life, another sweet and funny film, where he gets to play it straight and downtrodden. What you notice first off, like with the film Last Night, is the lack of effort made by Carell for dinner in his appearance...actually not just for dinner, in the everyday too. But then you notice the lack of effort when his wife says she wants a divorce, that she has slept with another man. The most dramatic thing he does is roll out of a moving car just to avoid the conversation his wife is trying to have with him.
Cue Ryan Gosling, noticing Carell whining night after night about his broken marriage he takes it upon himself to redress the situation, quite literally. Carell transforms from a man who should never dress himself to a sharply suited and booted gentleman able to bag the ladies quite as well as his younger mentor.
This film is not entirely focused on the two gentleman and their conquests, surrounding their story is the young would be lawyer Hannah (Emma Stone) who thinks she is happy with her current kinda dweeby guy played by Josh Grobin (hugely talented singer and very funny guy), and has been hit on by Gosling and intrigued him. Anyone who reads my reviews probably knows by now how obsessed I am with Emma Stone, I just think she is such a great actress, and am supremely jealous she got to spend so much quality time with Goslings abs in this movie.
Also in the mix of characters are Julianne Moore, Carells' wife, who is dealing with the consequences of her choices, and also a keen Kevin Bacon who wants to begin a relationship with her.
Then there is the lovestruck 13 year old son of Carell and Moore, Robbie, who has fallen for the 17 year old babysitter, who is herself in lust with Carell.
All of these stories make up the criteria for love being crazy and stupid. And I enjoyed all of the dimensions of the story, I genuinely laughed out loud frequently, cringed too, but most importantly did not hate any character or facet of the story which is what films like these can often suffer from.
The film benefitted from being written by Dan Fogleman, the man responsible for Disney’s Cars and Tangled, who looked at the situation with a fresh pair of eyes. Though he does adhere to convention in some places, there is a refreshing end to the film, and it’s the kind I really respond to in a movie, when everything is not tied up in a neat happily ever after package. I guess this is where Fogleman was able to steer away from Disney and inject reality into his script, though obviously keeping as much as possible in the happy camp.
The directors, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, handled the story and cast well, having been previously responsible for I Love You Phillip Morris (starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor) I knew the film would not be sappy and the comedy would not be forced, though there is the pre-requisite farcical fight toward the end but this was one of the moments I laughed the hardest I think.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film, the acting I cannot complain about, the story I really enjoyed and felt was almost true to life, and it delivered surprises that I was not expecting. If you have seen and enjoyed films such as Dan In Real Life or The Kids Are Alright you will not be disappointed by Crazy.Stupid.Love.
No comments:
Post a Comment