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| ©2011 Warner Brothers |
Steve Carell
Ryan Gosling
Julianne Moore
Emma Stone
Analeigh Tipton
Marisa Tomei
Jonah Bobo
118 min.
The Actors
Steve Carell has a great scene with nephew Dwayne (Paul Dano), as the uncle with healing wrists in Little Miss Sunshine (2006).
Ryan Gosling is taking over your movie theater: Drive just opened, and The Ides of March premieres next week. Both movies have Gosling all over them.
Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right (2010)).
Emma Stone (Easy A (2010)).
Analeigh Tipton (Hung (TV)).
Jonah Bobo (Zathura (2005)).
Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler (2008)).
The Rating
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| Sentimental stalking: the key to marriage-repair. ©2011 Warner Brothers |
The Story Begins
Cal Weaver (Carell) gets drunk and spreads the word to everyone in a fancy bar that his wife Emily has been cheating on him and wants a divorce. Jacob (Gosling) takes Cal aside to tell him that he has invited cuckolding and rejection with his New Balance sneakers, ill-fitting jacket and cheap haircut. Using friendly slaps to Cal's face to punctuate many of his sentences, Jacob offers to help him "rediscover" his "manhood," not by looking down but by dressing stylishly, appearing wealthy, speaking confidently and having sexual intercourse with a different woman every night, as Jacob does. Hanna (Stone) refuses to be one of Jacob's different women, and you know what that means according to the rules of romantic comedy. Meanwhile, the Weavers' babysitter is seven years younger than the actress who plays her, so Danny (Bobo), who still carries the scent of the womb, figures he has a shot.
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| Oh, no diseases for me tonight. Thanks, though! ©2011 Warner Brothers |
What I think
In real life, if you're going to move swiftly from woman to woman, it would seem prudent to move just as quickly from fancy bar to fancy bar, but Jacob doesn't need to do that. He's the mythical carefree playboy: accused of leading a shallow, empty life, but never called a sexual predator and never shunned or scowled at as a "user" by the nightclub regulars.
Some comments on movie websites quote Jacob's lines and complain of sexism. I'd say there's a big difference between portraying something and being something, but the message boards are missing a more interesting point.
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| Jackie berates Callie for getting discarded by her husband. ©2011 Warner Brothers |
CALLIE: My husband just left me, and he slept with some woman at the office!
JACKIE: Well, it's no wonder: you've certainly let yourself go. I'm going to make you over and teach you how to get into a man's pants more effectively. You know, rediscover your femininity.
It's unfair, though, to attack a screenplay for making nonjudgmental observations about human nature. Better to first address the accuracy of each problematic point, in case it isn't the words themselves that offend you, but the truth of them.
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| No! It doesn't help that you're "getting hair down there!" ©2011 Warner Brothers |
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| Liza Lapira of Traffic Light (TV), looking at someone. ©2011 Warner Brothers |
- You want to master the romantic arts of deception and manipulation, in order to feel better about yourself.
- You love it when a movie deceives and manipulates you with a far-fetched plot twist.
- Emma Stone is not flabby and wears the right shoes.
- There's such a thick layer of Gosling, it's just about dripping from certain frames.
- You're an executive at New Balance or at The Gap and think there was no reason Cal couldn't rediscover his manhood in New Balance sneakers and Gap khaki cargo pants.
- You resent Steve Carell for leaving The Office.
- You resent Steve Carell for the part he played in converting a pointed and dark British indictment of corporate culture into a neutered puppy for American television.
