Almost lost in my being smitten with a certain lady is the fact that I saw a tremendously good movie last night. Crazy, Stupid, Love is a refreshing throwback of a rom-com. It's a modernized hybrid of My Blue Heaven meets City Island, which is actually modern in itself, but bleeds Neil Simon so profusely that it feels like a classic.
If you take out the Mafia plot vehicle from the former, it's essentially Steve Carell playing the Rick Moranis role and Ryan Gosling playing the Steve Martin role. Gosling, a bonafide ladies' man, takes pity on Carell, a hapless soon-to-be divorcee, and sets out to mold Carell in his image.
Before you know it, the film takes a wide left and morphs into "City Island 2", which chronicles the sheer dysfunction surrounding the supporting cast. In particular, Carell's adolescent son over-dramatizes his feelings for an older classmate so profoundly that you wonder if he does it more out of teenage lust or as a form of rebellion against his father, who cannot adequately express his feelings to his estranged wife.
There's a twist at the end that is eerily reminiscent of City Island's climax. All in all, this is a must-see movie that strays from the formula just enough to make it stand out.
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