Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Ahh two cinema trips in a week. This is more like it. And what's more two good films in a week. Success.

   Crazy, Stupid, Love is a quirky, funny and refreshing (yes it is possible) chick flick, about the marriage of Cal (Steve Carrell) and Emily (Julianne Moore) which is pretty much falling apart after Emily has an affair and asks for a divorce. Whilst feeling like his life is falling apart, and acting quite pathetic, Cal is taken under the wing of the unlikely Jacob (a very swoonable Ryan Gosling) who is given advice on how to pull himself together, dress fashionably and pull women. On the other side of this, we also have a realtionship between Jacob and Hannah (an always brilliant Emma Stone) whose unlikely romance is sweet and awww inducing.

   I know, on paper, it sounds quite predictable and goofy, like most of the wishy washy rom-coms that are produced, and there are some things about it that are a teeny bit cringeworthy. For instance moments with Cals thirteen year old son and his crush on his 17 year old babysitter, are just a little, well, creepy. Moore is also not up to her normal excellent standard; not portraying her characters strengths, and Kevin Bacon is really quite under used.

   However, lets not focus on the few negatives. Firstly, I love Ryan Gosling. He has absolutely just shone in the last year or so. Giving a brilliant performance in Blue Valentine and also the very highly critically acclaimed "Drive". In this role, he is back to the buff and beautful love interest (that he played so well in The Notebook). Jacob, however does not resemble Goslings previous roles. He is cocky, arrogant, pretentious, very beautiful, and very likeable. When he is on screen, it brightens up. What makes the room brighter is when Stone enters with him. I cannot praise this girl enough. She just has some very dry humour about her that is so attractive. It will be interesting to see her play very different roles in both "The Help" and "Spiderman".

   Of course, we cannot forget Carell, playing as he most often does, the predicatable and likeable "every guy". He gets put into these same roles because he does it very well, this film being no exception. There are some very sweet words and moments shared between him and Moore, and some funny bromance moments between him and Gosling.

Overall, this is the sort of film that leaves you with the very rare (now-a-days) warm, fuzzy, loving feeling, (others may call it nausea). It has also restored my faith that there are, at least a few, intelligent, entertaining and sweet "rom-coms".

4/5