Crazy Stupid Love is a romantic comedy from 2011. It stars a whole host of actors including Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, John Carroll Lynch, Marisa Tomei, Analeigh Tipton, and Kevin Bacon. The movie starts out when Cal Weaver’s (Steve Carell) wife and former high school sweetheart, Emily (Julianne Moore), abruptly requests a divorce. Cal, who is not prepared for this in the slightest, ends up finding it difficult to cope with his new single life. He is absolutely clueless about finding love again, on top of the fact that his confidence and appearance are very low, as he wears sneakers, coats a size too big and a wounded heart on his sleeve.
One night, a young, attractive man named Jacob (Ryan Gosling) pities him for sitting alone in a bar. He introduces himself, and then takes Cal under his wing to teach him all the right moves. Jacob’s own polished pick-up routines work on an array of different women, until one day he finds a girl, who turns out to be Cal’s daughter Hannah (Emma Stone) who actually causes him to want to settle down. Meanwhile, two other romances stumble along at the Weaver household: Son Robbie (Jonah Bobo) pines for his sister’s babysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), while his mom tries to make sense of her feelings for one of her co-workers (Kevin Bacon).
The whole movie ultimately comes together at a family gathering in the Weavers’ backyard, when we learn how all the characters become inter-related to each other. This starts an uproar, but eventually all of the characters come together and are able to co-exist peacefully in the end.
I really enjoyed this movie. It had a good amount of humor, and was able to keep my attention and engagement throughout. I especially enjoyed the ending because it was full of twists and turns that the writers crafted in a way that they were able to keep it a secret from the audience. I honestly did not expect such a surprising ending. However, I did think that the film could have been made even better had it been able to explore its characters a little more in-depth. Perhaps this was caused by the fact that the movie contained too many characters and sub-plots to be able to explore them all in a thorough and satisfying manner.
Bridesmaids is a
wedding comedy from 2011. The main character, a thirty-something named Annie’s (Kristen
Wiig) life is falling apart. Despite her love for baking, her retail cake shop failed
miserably, leaving her finances in bad shape. She now works a dead-end job as a
jewelry store clerk, which she loathes. She is also forced to share an
apartment with two bizarre roommates, who don't respect her personal space. On
top of that, she is in a dysfunctional “friends with benefits” relationship
with misogynistic Ted, who treats her solely as a last-resort sex partner. The only positive aspect of her life at the
moment is when she finds out that her best friend Lillian of 16 years is
getting married. Annie is initially happy for her, however, soon things take a
turn for the worst when Annie starts to become overtaken with jealousy. As
Annie observes Lillian’s wedding party, she feels inferior. The other bridesmaids are all wealthy and
married, both things that Annie is not, and she envies this. One of the
bridesmaids in particular, Helen (Rose Byrne), really gets under Annie’s skin,
and competition for Lillian’s affection and attention ensues.
As
Annie seems to be losing the competition for being crowned Lillian’s maid of
honor at every turn, another positive change enters her life in the form of
police officer Nathan Rhodes. She becomes infatuated with him initially,
however eventually gives up on the relationship due to the other failures in
her life. As Annie continues to try to one-up Helen, she keeps pushing herself
further and further away form Lillian. She suffers a mental breakdown, and
struggles to turn her life back around, since she has left a train of ruins. However
in the end, she is able to make it up to Lillian, as well as Rhodes, and the
wedding party is brought closer together as they finally learn to co-exist
peacefully.
