Crazy, Stupid, Love (2012)

I will preface this by saying this isn't my type of movie; it just feels too contrived and silly. "He likes her, she likes someone else, who actually likes someone else." I know how ironic that sounds coming from a guy who loves action movies, like Total Recall, where Arnold is just an average guy til he visits a company that makes him believe he's a spy, when it turns out he actually is a spy! Or was he?

However, I am glad I gave this movie a chance because there is a lot to like about it. Right away the movie set the tone when it showed the feet of various couples which were interlocked underneath their tables, then finally the last couple is a nice pair of heels opposite a pair of ugly and worn-out sneakers. As soon as the couple barely said two words, you knew what was coming next, "divorce." In a reversal of roles from the typical romantic "dramedy", Julianne Moore is leaving her husband, played by Steve Carell, because she's having a mid-life crisis. I don't think this is really a "role reversal" as much as it is that movies are finally catching up with what's going on in the real world. But I digress; Steve Carell is fantasic as the dopey, mopey, divorcee who is trying to reinvent himself. He's still in love with his wife and even sneaks back home to do yard work at night.

Ryan Gosling is a true highlight of the movie right from the start and his entrance is almost like a wild west gunslinger entering a bar. Maybe he's even a new age Fonzie, as he's ditched the leather jacket for a blazer. He tries to pass his worldy knowledge on to Steve Carell's character, Cal Weaver; no relation to Dennis Weaver. It made me think about what I might be doing wrong in my own life, whether I should change my Cal-like ways, though I like to think that's my own "nerd" charm.

Others in the movie are Emma Stone (Hannah), Kevin Bacon (David Lindhagen), and Jonah Bobo (Cal's son), who was almost successful at stealing the show from the adults. Another character is Kate, whom Cal meets a bar except she's 5 years sober. See what I mean about contrived? More contrivances follow in typical Hollywood style, such as the town which the movie takes place seems to only have one bar. Though I guess by looking at contrivances in the plot, I'm overlooking the film's true meaning, which is you don't reinvent yourself by becoming someone you're not. That goes for both Cal and his wife.