"He loves me… He loves me not… He loves me… He loves me not… He loves me…"

Title: Crazy, Stupid, Love
Year: 2011
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Writer: Dan Fogelman
Runtime: 118min
Cast: Steve Carrell, Ryan Goslyn, Julian Moore, Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Bacon
Produc.: Carousel Productions
Budget: $50 million approx.

Crazy, Stupid, Love begins one night when Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) and his wife Emily (Julian Moore) are having dinner at a restaurant and suddenly she says she wants a divorce, after which the world seems to collapse in the eyes of Cal. It is then when he needs urgent help from Jacob Palmer (Ryan Goslin), a young playboy who will meet later in a bar, where Cal is drowning his sorrows.

The film uses Cal as its starting point, who comes to function as the common thread that unites the three acts. However, the conflict faced by him is not just an excuse to take the viewer to track multiple parallel situations, which will necessarily converge at some point.

Rapidly we pass from Robbie (Jonah Bobo), something which allows us to appreciate the issues that we are being told about, from another point of view completely different from his father. Robbie, unlike Cal is just a preteen who just started in this new dimension that is known as "sexuality" and that it is not easy to handle. Indeed, his character is introduced to us when his nanny Jessica (Analeigh Tipton) opens the door to his bedroom and accidentally catches him in the act of pleasing himself. Then Robbie tries to explain it to her, but one should understand that he only makes things worse, by declaring to Jessica that he was thinking of her while he did it. One can wonder whether it will serve to her as a comfort. What's more, throughout the film Robbie will try to express his love on numerous occasions.

Let’s now turn to another character, whose importance is crucial in resolving the conflict. This is Jacob, an attractive and smart boy who spends his night of bachelorhood conquering pretty girls in pubs to sleep with them. Jacob always wears a shirt and tie; he owns a body which (as it is said in the movie itself) looks photoshoped, and masters the art of seduction like a charm. Except that, in one of those opportunities that is in full operation, he suddenly hears in the distance the cries of a man who are not targeted to anyone, and decides to lend him hand. Sometime later, the relationship between Jacob and Cal will have evolved, while another very complicated bond stars to develop between Jacob and Hannah (Emma Stone). In the end there will have been formed a series of entanglements, and thus, the way all the loose ends end up tied.

But going now a little bit to the root of the matter, Crazy, Stupid, Love is one of those films whose content has several layers, staying not only in the anecdote. Here it covers issues that had made to think already a few. A kind and intelligent man, but whose wife has just asked for a divorce. But why? On what did he failed as a husband? A preteen who’s in love with a girl a few years older. Does the age difference necessarily need to be a limiting? A young man of impeccable figure who has chosen a life of Playboy instead of a relationship. Could it be that he fears a serious relationship?

Crazy, Stupid, Love is an interesting movie from the beginning, but which perhaps lacks a faster pace. However, when approaching to its end, with that twist in which everything comes together you may feel relieved. Then, well, maybe the writer lost his inspiration and that is why he chose to trace another 1500 endings, of those which bring a smile to the public.

My rating: 7/10

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