Crazy, Stupid Love is a pretty fun movie, but I feel that it took the formulaic way out at too many junctures in the story. Basically, without Steve Carell’s warmth and charisma this film would have been in trouble. He glues the whole thing together. What amazes me about Steve Carell is not so much how funny he is (I actually don’t find him hysterically funny) but what an incredible screen presence the guy has and frankly what a good actor he is with serious material. People don’t get to see this very much because he tends to take these hammy roles all the time, but anyone who has seen Dan in Real Life will know just how good he can be with serious material. This film is nowhere near Dan in Real Life, which is a modern classic in my opinion, but Carell does get some chance to glow with the material in Crazy, Stupid Love.

The film has some other problems as well. Julianne Moore is so cold as an actress that I really did not believe that she was Steve Carell’s soulmate. As my wife pointed out, they really could have switched Moore and Marisa Tomei, who I believe could have pulled off the role of the wife much better. Compare the Carell / Moore screen relationship to the similar relationship of Tomei and Matthew McConaughey in The Lincoln Lawyer, and how much more believable it was in The Lincoln Lawyer that there was still a spark of love bonding the couple despite all the many problems they faced – a good part of this was Tomei’s skill, warmth and flexibility as an actress. With Moore, all you register is her coldness. In the end, my wife and I agreed that Moore was the main problem with this movie.

Emma Stone is a bizarre and marvelous quantity in films. I’m not sure what I think of her acting, but she has great screen presence and an incredible voice. I wish she had more of a role in this film. As for Ryan Gosling, I really don’t like him as an actor, but I felt he was actually pretty tolerable in this role.

Crazy, Stupid Love does have some nice moments, and on the whole the dialog is really not bad. I just kept hoping that it would transcend itself at some point and it never did, but that is not a crime. This is a fun movie, probably the only date movie of the summer. Go enjoy it for what it is and leave it at that.