Despite funny moments, Crazy, Stupid, Love disappoints

Romcom's female characters underwritten

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Despite funny moments, Crazy, Stupid, Love disappoints

Despite some truly funny moments (half of which are in the previews), director duo Glenn Ficarra’s and John Requa’s (I Love You Phillip Morris) Crazy, Stupid, Love doesn’t live up to its full potential, falling into a well-worn Hollywood routine of soulmates and grand gestures. As Steve Carell’s 25-year marriage to Julianne Moore breaks up, ladies’ man Ryan Gosling helps Carell “discover his manhood”---a series of Carell-gets-a-makeover and how-pick-up-women montages ensue, until Gosling meets “game changer” Emma Stone and reforms his promiscuous ways. Numerous side-plots (including Carell’s 13-year-old son’s creepy obsession with his 17-year-old babysitter and her infatuation with Carell) distract from Carell’s and Gosling’s budding bro-mance---arguably the best part of the movie. Moore and Stone don’t shine quite as brightly, mostly because their characters---sweet, innocent women---unfortunately aren’t meant to.