Film File - Crazy Stupid Love

It's not easy being unexpectedly single again as a 40-something - just ask Sinead O'Connor. In a world where divorce and separation are afflictions that may well touch many people, unfortunately, it's inevitable the subject would become a well-worn Hollywood theme. In the most recent from this stable, 'Crazy Stupid Love' actually makes a good, and often very funny, stab at this emotional jungle, and the ways some people plot their paths through it. Conservative fortysomething Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) is, on the surface at least, living the dream with a good job, fine house, happy kids and a solid marriage to his high school sweetheart, Emily (Julianne Moore). All is well in this suburban paradise until the night Cal learns that his wife has cheated on him and wants a divorce. In minutes, his perfect life quickly unravels as he jumps from a speeding car into the strange and completely uncharted world of singledom. A man who hasn't gone on a date in over 30 years suddenly finds himself grappling with the horror of becoming a terrified Lone Ranger on the lonesome prairie of the unattached - a role for which he's utterly uneducated. Help is at hand, however, when the hapless Cal is taken on as wingman and pupil to handsome lothario Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling), a man to whom the answer 'No' has never been spoken. "You've got a kind face, a good head of hair, and you seem like a nice guy. I'm going to help you rediscover your manhood. Do you have any idea when you lost it?" asks Jacob. "A strong case can be made for 1984," ventures the newly minted single man. Helping Cal get over his wife and start living his life, Jacob opens the middle-aged debutant's eyes to the many options before him: flirty women, darkened bars and a whole new sense of style that won't be found on the sales rack of The Gap. Cal isn't the only one looking for love in strange places, though: his 13-year-old son, Robbie (Jonah Bobo), has fallen in love with his 17-year-old babysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), who herself harbours a major secret crush of her own on none other than Cal. Then, just to really ramp up the complications of this crazy, stupid love story, Jacob - the man committed to non-commitment - finds himself outfoxed and flummoxed when he unsuccessfully tries his best lines on Hannah (Emma Stone), a girl totally unimpressed with his smooth style that he just can't seem to get out of his mind. Sharply and wittily scripted by Dan Fogleberg - whose previous writing credits have been stationed mainly in the kiddies market, such as 'Cars 1 + 2', 'Tangled', 'Bolt' - this is a tale about three different generations of romance built around the old adage that 'the older we get, the less we know' - in love, at least. And, indeed, the lessons we can learn from the younger generation are sometimes the most surprising. Directed by Glenn Fiquara and John Requa, the film is peppered with laugh-out-loud moments in a script that manages to mercifully avoid the over-sentimental trap at every turn. Using his gormless personality that made the American version of 'The Office' such an unexpected success, Carell is perfect as the stranger in a strange land - led ably into one scenario after another by the always watchable Gosling. Cutting neatly between the adult mishaps in the mating game and the equally perplexing confusion at the teenage end of the spectrum, Julianne Moore, another actress incapable of a bad performance, drives several comedy moments with her romantic mishaps with accountant colleague David (Kevin Bacon), a carbon copy of the husband she fell out of love with. Emma Stone is as sharp as the lines she delivers as the unimpressed target of Jacob, run close by the still ravishing Marisa Tomei as Cal's first conquest in the pick-up jungle. This is that rare combination: a terrific script, great actors perfectly in tune, and a storyline that all of us over the age of 16 can shake our heads at in rueful recognition. A huge winner to banish the blues on these cold evenings.