CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE is the second shot at feature film directing by duo Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. These boys first came to motion picture prominence by penning Bad Santa, the iconoclastic, caustic, claus with claws comedy. They then adapted the book I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS and apprenticed themselves to helming the project.

With CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE they have decided to hone their helming duties and opted to direct a script by Dan Fogelman. The script is a gift, a beautifully structured scenario about the fallout of a marriage breakdown, full of intricacies and intersections, a comedy that is funny but also intriguing, honest and humane.

Such a fine script has attracted an equally fine cast – Steve Carrell headlines as Cal Weaver whose wife Emily (Julianne Moore) starts the comedy of errors rolling with her wish for a divorce after an indiscretion with her workmate, David (Kevin Bacon).Enter Jacob (Ryan Gosling) a kind of young Henry Higgins, a professor of the heterosexual pick-up, a tutor in the technique of attraction, a Pygmalion who preens Cal into a suave and successful player in the game of pulling playmates.

Poor Cal still pines for Emily however, but reconciliation is put under pressure from all manner of parties including family members, neighbours and teachers. Emma Stone, Marissa Tomei, Beth Littleford and Josh Groben all add their talents to this exceptionally well layered film whose humour comes from the heart and not from the fart that seems to be the insubstantial and inconsequential core of contemporary American comedy.

True comedy has certain humanity with characters that we can empathise with. It has the potential for tragedy if things don’t turn out right. This is true of CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE, – it’s big hearted, warm hearted and potentially heart breaking, audacious enough to be sophisticated and silly, verbally dexterous and deliriously slapstick when required

© Richard Cotter

27th September, 2011