Crazy, Stupid, Love. 23/09/11

Purely for my absolute love of a tanned Ryan Gosling, I had been looking forward to seeing this film for months. I would honestly hate to think how many times myself and my reception compadre have watched this trailer - but we're talking seriously high numbers.

Gosling exudes wit, cool and arrogance as playboy Jacob Palmer and he executes this with perfection. It would have been so very easy for him to play Jacob as a truly unlikable chauvinist type but you never find yourself disliking the character, in fact quite the opposite, the charm he portrays makes him the most watchable and engaging character in the film. Gosling along with Steve Carrell, Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon, Emma Stone and Marisa Tomei all put in classy performances which combined spell an impressive cast for this quirky romantic comedy.

The characters are likeable and believable and this is the first step towards the movies success. Crazy, Stupid, Love is an intelligent and funny representation of modern relationships and while the situations might not be relatable to all, aspects of characters and scenarios are. We follow many different stories of love in different stages, forms and age brackets. The central story is that of childhood sweethearts Cal (Carell) and his wife Emily (Moore) after she requests a divorce. This is where Jacob, the ladies man extraordinaire, comes into play; he meets Cal in a bar and offers his services as 'life coach' in order for Cal to recapture who he is. Think Hitch with a twist. Cue montage of Cal's transformation to reclaim his masculinity.

 My only concern with this movie is that in the final third it becomes a little too sentimental. Throughout the story the onus is more on the seriousness of the situation rather than the comedic opportunity. You come out feeling satisfied with the resolution and the amount of clever dialogue you witnessed, sure, but you do feel fairly short changed of real laughter. Also, at almost 2 hours long, you do feel like it could have been a little more concise in some areas. I do, however, feel there is enough humour and punch in the overall product that all of this needn't be too much of a problem; Crazy, Stupid, Love is a refreshing take on the exhausted romantic comedy structure and a must watch feel good movie.

Gosling - 10/10 for torso. The above picture was always going to be the one. Win. Thankyouplease.