Crazy Stupid Love

An enjoyable likeable romantic comedy that I find a nice refresher after blockbusters, horror and Asian films. Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling are brilliant, the bar scenes are great, and the interesting twists and tricks are a delight. The highlight is the hilarious scene at the garden reunion, it will make your sides hurt. 80%. (20.06.2016)

Here, the entire plot of Hitch is just a prelude to a multilayered relationship collage combining romantic, comedic and dramatic elements. Though it follows a Hollywood template, it works skillfully with several characters whose love troubles are not completely clichéd and predictable. Thanks to this, and thanks to the casting of Ryan Gosling and Julianne Moore in the roles where you’d expect Adam Sandler and Salma Hayek, the film is not just another bland pot of mush. (27.09.2011)

For three quarters of its run I was really thrilled with Crazy, Stupid, Love, but that clichéd happy ending made me lose that feeling very quickly. Carell, Gosling, Moore, et al. are fantastic, I had no problem liking everyone. It’s certainly a very nice film, but if you want to see a truly great one, turn it off after the “meeting in the garden” scene. (24.10.2011)

Love is a struggle. Even in a film essentially devoid of conflict. Romantic comedies about people losing and regaining certainties in life will always have a place in any era. We will always want to run away and naïvely believe. The second film by the directors of the imaginative I Love You Phillip Morris neither advances nor enriches the genre, but it does exactly what it outwardly promises to do – it delights the viewer. It is more delightful than other films in the same category. Thanks to the well-coordinated, likable actors, smooth transitions between farce and tragedy, ironic references to genre clichés (rain, the Dirty Dancing reference) and the unexpected revelation that retroactively justifies the seemingly weak connection between the various story lines (and doesn’t seem contrived, because it consists in cleverly working with, or rather concealing, information). Due to the interconnectedness of the individual motifs, the comedy isn’t tasteless (shameless photos elegantly resolve one of the storylines), nor is it silly in its utterly unrealistic ending. Crazy, Stupid, Love is simply proof that a fresh approach can be taken to a seemingly played-out genre without the necessity of going to extremes. 75% (20.09.2011)

A pleasant film that changes absolutely beautifully over time. I was quite impressed by how many interesting and big names they managed to rope into this movie. Maybe they wanted to shoot it for fun, because I doubt that they could get that much money out of such relationship-centric romantic movie. Anyway, the most amazing thing in the movie was Ryan Gosling. He was changing right before my eyes. First he was a flute player who scored with every girl he looked at, and then he was a boy who fell head over heels in love. And I believed him all that one hundred percent. Without him, the film would’ve definitely been only a half of what it is. But not only without him; Steve Carell is great as well. I just don’t understand why he’s being referred to as a comedian. He hasn’t grabbed my attention as a comedian yet, but he did convince me that he is a good actor. The film itself is about relationships with those we love and also about the fact that sometimes these relationships go into a slightly different direction than we would actually like. It was definitely a nice movie, but watching it once was enough for me. (29.12.2012)