Now that summer is sadly coming to a close, the “hey we have to hurry and release this” movies are starting to come out. Not all are like this but let’s be honest, the August movies are not usually the best, because if they were, they would have been released earlier in the summer. Well, The Help is coming out soon and I have high hopes for that, but one movie I had my eye on for a while was Crazy, Stupid, Love. So I rushed to the theater this weekend to check it out.
Movie: Crazy, Stupid, Love
Rating: PG-13
Release date: July 29, 2011
Everyday Adventures’ grade: B
Summary: Cal and Emily (Steve Carell and Julianne Moore) are getting a divorce, pushing Cal to probably the hottest bar in suburban Los Angeles with only pretty people. One of those pretty people is Jacob (Ryan Gosling) who helps Cal get his manhood back while navigating his post-split waters. Then Jacob meets Hannah (Emma Stone) and his man-whore ways may be changing.
My thoughts: Oh my Gosling. Okay, yeah I’ll cop to it, 90% of the reason I wanted to see this was Ryan Gosling and his…abs. And by the sighs of pure joy and lust in my theater, I wasn’t the ONLY ONE. Separate from the abs of steel that made me want to wash some clothes, Ryan Gosling really killed it in this movie. He was charming, fun and drop dead sexy as Jacob, exactly who he needed to be. He was suave without being douchy (cough JT in Social Network) and, well whomever tailored those suits to fit him so well is the luckiest b*tch I know.
Moving on, I had really high expectations for this movie (separate from the abs) and is halfway delivered. The movie is broken up in to almost three small stories between Cal and Emily, Jacob and Cal, Jacob and Hannah and Cal’s kid and his babysitter. The stories I found the most interesting were Cal and Jacob and Hannah and Jacob. The Cal and Emily storyline was a little…much. It started with Emily cheating and morphed in to something bigger and a bigger, more mythical story about soulmates. Sounds too much like Dawson’s Creek in their mid-life crisis. Julianne Moore and Steve Carell didn’t have the chemistry he did with Tina Fey in Date Night and you could tell.
Sadly, we didn’t get to see much of the Cal/Hannah dynamic either. Sure, Hannah was meant to show growth in Jacob’s character but with only one touching scene to set up his transformation it fell a little flat. But the chemistry between them was awesome. Really wish we got to see more of them together.
The super creepy storyline involved Cal’s son, who is madly in love with his babysitter, who happens to be in love with Cal. Huh, awkward. Add a little attempted sexting and inappropriate photos and you have a storyline that keeps happening on screen and wishing you could look away. Creepy.
But either way, there were some really funny parts, hot suits on Ryan Gosling and it reaffired my crush on Emma Stone. Seriously, that girl can do no wrong.
Verdict: Go see it, if nothing else, than for Ryan Gosling’s abs. That sh*t won’t look nearly as hot on the small screen. Ladies, treat yourself.
