Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)

Director: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Time Out rating

Average user rating

14 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Can a film be worth seeing for a single scene? There’s a moment midway through ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’ – a seduction scene between brash but likeable ladies’ man Ryan Gosling (in his second film this week after ‘Drive’) and nervy, alcohol-fuelled Emma Stone – which is one of the most witty, truthful, beautifully acted scenes in any film so far this year. It’s an out-of-nowhere heart-grabber in which script, performance and tone find a truly perfect balance.

Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is a mess. This is one of those literate, star-stuffed family comedies of which Hollywood is fond at the moment – think a more phallocentric ‘The Kids Are Alright’. Steve Carell (pictured left) splits from wife Julianne Moore when she has an affair with Kevin Bacon, leading Carell to pal up with Gosling for a ‘Hitch’-style character reinvention.

Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa rose to prominence with the script for scabrous Christmas classic ‘Bad Santa’, but they’ve fallen hard here: this is witless, saccharine and lifeless – all except for that one, glorious scene.

Author: Tom Huddleston

Time Out London Issue 2144: 22-28 Sept, 2011

Email Tweet Share

User reviews of this film

fran said...

Posted on Feb 04 2012 04:00 Apart from that one scene, a truly repellant film. Cloying, gratingly sexist, recycled rehashed scenarios, disturbing sub text . And the inevitable self flagellating remorse scene in front of a crowd of onlookers-Every american romcom has one -squirm drama-yuk-

Report as inappropriate
Mollie rose said...

Posted on Oct 09 2011 10:19 went to see this film last night.have not laughed as much im my life i will defo go and see it agian.

Report as inappropriate
mollie rose said...

Posted on Oct 08 2011 16:25 i dont think u should put things like that as i am going to see it to night so now im thinking its not good its ur apining if its not a good one dont put i can not understand people like that i will let u no my appiming tomorow

Report as inappropriate
David said...

Posted on Oct 05 2011 09:05 In the main, all films are formulaic, so its a little off to hold this against it. I found the script was quite well balanced, moments of sacchrine spaced throughout as to not over/underwhelm. Some nice moments and good turns by Gosling, Stone, Moore and Carell. It was never going to be a game changer of any sorts, but it was a solid example of its type.

Report as inappropriate
scrumpyjack said...

Posted on Oct 03 2011 21:45 F word light comedy (phew! almost feels original after this "c*** soaked" summer!) mostly delights and Tomei is delicious and steals the show. Fun, a bit touching and no spunk "jokes". 7/10

Report as inappropriate
AndrewT said...

Posted on Oct 03 2011 19:16 OK it was formulaic up to a point ( and not very funny) but quite affecting I thought with god performances from Carrell and Moore,

Report as inappropriate
long cat said...

Posted on Sep 29 2011 18:22 Flawlessly brilliant movie. Can't wait to buy it on DVD. I'll see it again before that

Report as inappropriate
Marsellus said...

Posted on Sep 27 2011 10:52 What's with all the negativity on this film? I thought it was great. A nice story, good performances all round and plenty of humour throughout. It reminded me a little of Dan in Real Life or Mrs Doubtfire in the way it mixes drama and comedy.

Report as inappropriate
Ajay said...

Posted on Sep 25 2011 21:12 This movie was delightful! It had good humour and although just under 2 hours was a little dragged at times, overall went away smiling from the cinema!

Report as inappropriate
Ian said...

Posted on Sep 24 2011 00:59 This is the first film to really make me angry in a long time. Apart from the scene detailed in the review it is such a huge disappointment.
It hurtles from cliche to cliche with the biggest and most obvious cliche being signposted way ahead. I don't want to spoil it but when it hits about fifteen minutes from the end you will know.
A film designed by focus groups with a fake and faux happy ending that falls into the cliche re PG13 when it wants to and should be R18 as Emma Stone's character says in the seduction scene.
It could and maybe should have been the best and smartest family sex and relationship film since Sex, Lies and Videotape it should perhaps be titled dull, boring and cliched.
Very disappointed. Stone and Gosling are worth 4 stars, the rest struggles to rise above 1.

Report as inappropriate
gnjtujer said...

Posted on Sep 23 2011 15:07 lovely i dont know what she is talking about??^^^^^^^

Report as inappropriate
mimi said...

Posted on Sep 23 2011 15:05 shite film

Report as inappropriate
Alex Forte said...

Posted on Sep 21 2011 09:08 Oh dear. Yet another attempt by Time Out to mock the mainstream only to find themselves beached. This is actually one of the funniest films of the year, sharply written and beautifully acted. If you are going to slag it off, then at least manage to spell seductively in your headline.

Report as inappropriate
FilmFanNL said...

Posted on Sep 20 2011 20:53 I saw this movie in a local cinema about two weeks ago. I thought that this was actually one of the funniest movies that I have seen so far this year.

Report as inappropriate