Crazy, Stupid, Love movie review (2011)

But the surprise is Ryan Gosling. I consider him a superb actor, and I've seen him play everything from an anti-Semite ("The Believer") to a child killer ("Murder by Numbers") to a man in love with a love doll ("Lars and the Real Girl"). In "Blue Valentine" (2010), he plays a not ideal husband. But I didn't see him as a lounge lizard and pickup artist, and in "Crazy, Stupid, Love," he has as much bulls#!t as if he'd been Zach Galifianakis all of his life.

The movie opens with a bombshell. Cal (Steve Carell) asks his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) what she wants for dessert. "A divorce," she says. Cal, who has grown complacent in his marriage, is stunned. So are his kids, especially 13-year-old Robbie (Jonah Bobo), who has a crush on Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), his 17-year-old baby-sitter.

Cal seeks to assuage his sorrow in an upscale cocktail lounge with an improbable variety of babes and finds himself noticing the smooth moves of a ladykiller named Jacob (Ryan Gosling). This guy seems to leave every night with the woman of his choice. Jacob observes Cal's morose presence at the bar, overhears his bitter monologues and insists on giving him some tips. This leads to lectures on pickup techniques and one of those makeover montages in which Cal acquires correct shoes, shirts, suits and a haircut.

Emily, I neglected to say, has been fooling around with a guy at work (Kevin Bacon in his slightly snaky mode). Not much is made of this; we're spared the sight of Emily being tender with him, because that would throw off the gradually developing logic of the movie.

So, OK. We have two generations seeking success in love. Robbie does a winsomely good job of pining hopelessly for Jessica, who has set her sights a little higher. Cal, meanwhile, takes advantage of Jacob's coaching to score sensationally with Kate (Marisa Tomei), an energetic, recovering alcoholic who is a sexual virtuoso. And then something happens that Jacob did not anticipate: In the bar one night, he meets the lovely Hannah (Emma Stone) and does something he didn't think he was capable of. He falls in love.