Sunday, August 28, 2011

Crazy, Stupid, Love.

by Pa Rock
Movie Aficionado


I shared a moment with my youngest son, Tim, when he was just thirteen.  Looking back on it, I think that moment was an astonishing, yet fleeting, glimpse into the future.

Tim and I were living on our own in Noel, Missouri, where he was involved in getting through junior high school and I was trying to eek out a living selling real estate, a vocation at which I had little aptitude or interest.  One afternoon we were in Springfield, though for the life of me I can't remember why.  Somehow we wound up at the Dollar Show where we saw Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray and Andie McDowell.  After the movie ended and we were headed to the car, I said "That was a really well written movie."  To which Tim replied, "You're right, Rock.  That was a really well written movie."

Now, eighteen years later, Tim writes movies - with one in production as I bang out this blog - and he and I both still know a well written one when we see it.

Tim suggested a few weeks ago that I check out Crazy, Stupid, Love if it ever made its way to Okinawa.  Well, its finally here, I saw it today, and it was every bit as good as Tim proclaimed.

Crazy, Stupid, Love looks at a mature marriage in the throes of self-destruction, and the impact that the break-up has on family, friends, and the rest of the world.  The wife, played by Julianne Moore, has had a brief affair with a co-worker, Kevin Bacon, and comes to the conclusion that she wants a divorce.  She is, however, unsure as to whether she is having a mid-life crisis or not.   The husband, Steve Carell, has grown content and lazy in the marriage and overreacts to the announcement by throwing himself out of a moving car.

Past the point of the break-up, this movie looks at how men and women go about redefining themselves as single.  Ryan Gosling is a womanizing barfly who grows tired of hearing Carell piss and moan in the bar about his wife's unfaithfulness.  Gosling takes Carell under his wing, teaches him how to dress and interact with women, and turns him loose on a unsuspecting world.

And there were complications galore.  The couple's thirteen-year-old son is madly in love with his seventeen-year-old baby sitter, who, in turn, is in love with the divorcing father.   The father's first sexual conquest turns out to be the son's eighth grade English teacher, and the womanizing barfly looses his heart to...well, it's complicated.

But more than anything else, it is very well written.

I recommend Crazy, Stupid, Love highly - and so does Tim.

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