By Sarah Sluis
Steve Carell nailed the sexually innocent, romantically awkward character in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and it appears that he's returning to the same territory in Crazy, Stupid, Love. The romantic comedy has a well-known cast: Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei, Emma Stone, and Kevin Bacon play supporting roles. The trailer for Crazy, Stupid, Love just came out, and it exceeded my expectations.
First, Crazy, Stupid, Love appears to put story first, comedy second, which for me is more likely to result in appreciative laughter. Unfortunately, I know the movie puts story first because the trailer all but gives away the ending. Oh well. Carell plays a husband who just found out his high school sweetheart wife (Moore) cheated on him. He ends up meeting a player (Gosling), who helps him up his game enough to snag a cute woman (Tomei). But Carell still loves his wife! And Gosling just fell in love, not lust, with another woman (Stone)! It seems like the story will end with Carell back in the arms of his wife and Gosling learning from Carell how to commit. It's really too bad that the trailer had to give that story arc away--I think the idea of the player learning from the longtime husband is really sweet, and unexpected. In a lot of these movies, only the main character undergoes a transformation.
Of all the performances, I was most surprised by Gosling's take on a ladies' man. I know him mainly for his dramatic role in Blue Valentine, so seeing him as a slick, fast-talking guy was something of a surprise. The rest of the cast plays versions of their already established star personas. For the second year in a row, Moore is playing a likeable cheater (The Kids Are All Right). Stone again plays a smart girl skeptical of male intentions (Easy A), and Tomei is doing her sexually assertive thing.
The trailer cuts out some of the more suggestive punchlines, so I'm going to bet this movie is going for a PG-13 vibe, especially because the movie also includes teen romance, Carell and Moore's son's lusting after his babysitter. Back in December, Warner Bros. moved the comedy from April 22 to July 29, the surest sign that this romantic comedy can stand up to the heat of summer.
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