FILM: Crazy, Stupid, Love

"The war between the sexes is over. We won the second women started doing pole dancing for exercise."

The term 'Rom-Com' has a stigma attached to it. Mt first connotations include: trashy, predictable, cliche. The late nineties and early noughties hatched innumerable amounts of the genre. Jennifer Anniston became the go-to actress for such film.

But I have to admit, cropping up in the  twenty tens - is that what we call it, the tens? or teenies? god I'm so lost - is what I'd like to call the Smart-Rom-Com. Crazy Stupid Love (2011) is the latest example of this. The typical Romantic Comedy narrative is applied. We've got the challenged relationships, the battle of the sexes (aforementioned - CHECK THE HUGE QUOTE), the pleasing ending... But this is accompanied by postmodern intertextuality, self-conscious assertions that we are in a Rom-com - Emma Stone's Hannah in Crazy comments "I know what'd happen in the PG-13 version of this" - and, first and foremost, a great screenplay.

Crazy Stupid Love is ridiculously witty, and it knows it. Ryan Gosling's smoothie composition of Jacob, the 'Lady's man', is perhaps the principal manifestation of this. With lines such as "I don't know whether to help you or euthanize you" and "the skin under your eyes is starting to look like Hugh Hefner's ball sack", Gosling's delivery exudes charisma to an extent I didn't even know existed.

First mass-breaking hearts in The Notebook, Gosling transformed tortured and adoring Noah Calhoun to druggy low-life Dan Dunne in indie flick Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck, 2006) and later enigmatic dude in Drive (Refn, 2011), an exceptional film. In Crazy Gossers plays the typical hottie. In his presence girls descend into inarticulate behaviour, random exclamations of "I LOVE YOU", and even Stone's cynical Hannah screams "FUCK" when she sees this:





this pic does not do it justice.

but his character is so much more believable and interesting than the archetype hunk, his hedonistic and materialised lifestyle is clearly a cover up for his deep unhappiness. (Weep). And this is what the Smart-Rom-Com does. It makes characters which could be real people, with vivid flaws. Believable. Even Steve Carrel's character isn't as exaggerated and annoying as usual. Like 2009's It's Complicated the focus has been more on the, well, more mature generation of mothers and fathers, the family dynamic as well as dating and youth. It's full of connections between characters, and hosts a clever plot twist at the end, which creates a sense of harmony in wrapping up the intertwining narrative.

Crazy Stupid Love is not a brainless money-maker. It is fresh, it has a brain, it looks like somebody actually made an effort in assembling this, which is always a good thing. I hope the Crazy's, Friends With Benefits and Love Actuallys continue to dominate this market.



P.S coming soon: FILM 2012: Avengers Assemble