A subplot shows Robbie (Jonah Bobo of “Zathura”), the 13-year old son of Cal and Emily, going through the pangs of first love and having a big crush on their 17-year old babysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), who in turn has a crush on older guy no other than Cal himself. Then there’s Jacob’s own love interest, Hannah (Emma Stone), a law student who’s expecting a proposal from singer Josh Groban in a lousy cameo as a lawyer. Cal has a fling with a woman, Kate (Marisa Tomei), who turns out to be Robbie’s teacher.
As an adult romantic comedy, “Crazy Stupid Love” offers varied love stories. The central love story concerning Cal and Emily is for middle aged couples. Then there’s the Jacob-Hannah romance for the 20 somethings and the Robbie-Jessica crush thing for teens.
There’s no doubt Steve Carrell’s Cal is the flawed central protagonist here and he’s an easy butt of jokes, but the problem is the movie offers very few genuine laughs. The script uses manipulative plot mechanics, hiding the true identity of some characters to surprise us and make us laugh. This quickly becomes overused and unbelievable, just like the graduation scene where Cal takes over the speech of his son who’s the salutatorian. The acting is nothing outstanding and Gosling isn’t at all credible as a ladies man even if he’s buff now as his looks are that of a character actor.
