For the first time in a long time Hollywood offers up an energetic adult romantic comedy with equal parts substance and comic spice. A generational divide between old-fashioned romantic sensibilities and the cultured mechanics of modern dating bubbles up for deeply satisfying laughs.
Steve Carell’s suburban family man Cal gets hit by a ton of bricks when his childhood-sweetheart wife Emily (Julianne Moore) asks for a divorce in order to pursue a relationship with her smarmy co-worker David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon).
The perfectly cast Steve Carell is the picture of middle-aged male frumpiness. He wears his dirty New Balance tennis shoes like his birthright. Carell uses everyday mannerisms to convey his disheveled character’s abandoned dog demeanor. Cal needs to be adopted. And we, the audience, want to help.
Cal’s brain is stuck in a short-circuit loop connected to his mopey mouth, which yammers on about how his adulterous wife “slept with David Lindhagen.” Every patron and bartender at Cal’s now regular watering hole knows his sad sack story all too well. The posh venue also serves as the frequent hunting ground for Ryan Gosling’s Jacob.
Jacob plies his well-worn trade of catch-and-release fishing for a steady stream of “fancy face” females who fall for his polished game 99% of the time. Jacob responds to something in Cal’s naive nature. He generously offers to tutor Cal in the fine art of cocksmanship at no charge. These sensei/student lessons do come with face-slaps and a head-to-toe make-over that liberally drains Cal’s credit card for the “16 items” he needs to reinvent his wardrobe. The film stumbles during a pair of poorly calculated nude scenes between Cal and Jacob that expose the screenwriters more than they do their characters.
Ironically, the film’s theme lines are carried by Cal’s 13-year-old son Robbie (well played by Jonah Bobo). Robbie has a major crush on his 17-year-old babysitter Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), who is trying to get Cal’s romantic attention. Robbie views Jessica as his soul mate. Nothing will dissuade him. Robbie’s persistence of romantic vision knows no boundaries. By the end of the movie neither do we. Anything seems possible with the right amount of heart.
Rated PG-13. 118 mins.
