Crazy, Stupid, Love
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: July 29, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJul 27, 2011
Nothing more (or less) than an enchanting light comedy of romantic confusion... It's a movie that understands love because it understands pain. Read full review
90
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondJul 23, 2011
A superb ensemble cast makes the most of the comedy's numerous detours and storylines. Read full review
80
EmpireOlly RichardsSep 19, 2011
A wonderful comedy of romance, pain and getting it all wrong until somebody makes you do it right. The kind of film that makes you want to call someone the minute it's over, even if just to tell them to go see this movie. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJul 28, 2011
Between the writing, acting, directing and the rest, it works. Not crazy, not stupid, and filled with love. Period. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 28, 2011
The movie also fights for what it wants - to touch us in the course of entertaining us - and it succeeds, with its zinger-studded script that transcends clumsy mechanics and a spirited cast that includes Marisa Tomei as a nymphomaniacal middle-school teacher, and Jonah Bobo as a lovesick eighth-grader. Read full review
80
TimeMary PolsJul 23, 2011
The movie's biggest surprise is the revelation of Gosling as cunning comedian. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJul 23, 2011
Old-fashioned as that might sound, there's a fresh, insightful feel to this multigenerational love story. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 29, 2011
Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei make the most of their limited screen time, injecting straight comedy into a movie that occasionally comes close to losing its sense of humor. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 29, 2011
The engine that really makes Crazy Stupid Love go is the same one that has made Ficarra and Requa's films to this point so appealing: While they thrust their characters into outrageous situations, they always keep things grounded in real, relatable emotion. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithJul 29, 2011
Pity the crowds expecting another cute comedy like "Date Night" who wind up at Crazy, Stupid, Love. It'll be like asking for a burger and getting served escargot. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenJul 28, 2011
Crazy, Stupid, Love seems at times like a bunch of movies searching for an identity. Happily, some of them are actually worth watching. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 28, 2011
Men will watch Crazy, Stupid, Love thinking they're finding out things about women, but if anything, this movie works the other way. Women will get a glimpse into the male mind. Read full review
75
MovielineStephanie ZacharekJul 28, 2011
Crazy, Stupid, Love. is, for the most part, an effective love story, but the two figures in thrall to one another aren't the ones you think: The magnetism between the movie's two male stars, Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling, is what really makes the movie tick. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisJul 28, 2011
The fun is in watching these robustly generic people trip over and pinball off of each other, seeing them eddy around Carell, who as the straight man here is getting dangerously close to Greg Kinnear's territory - where comedy is too self-serious to laugh at. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyJul 28, 2011
In the end, Ficarra and Requa take all the formula ingredients and blend them into a satisfying - and tasty - concoction. "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy," meet "All's Well That Ends Well." Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 28, 2011
What makes Crazy Stupid Love a cut above is actors who let pain seep into the laughs. Here's a comedy you really can take to heart. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasJul 28, 2011
Gosling and Stone, too, have wonderful chemistry; their all-night "seduction" sequence is the film's highlight, witty and effortlessly sexy.
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJul 27, 2011
The strength of the movie, however formulaic its structure, is that it is slightly more thoughtful about its characters. It's not deep, mind you, but it considers their problems as more than fodder for comedy. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreJul 27, 2011
As a Steve Carell comedy, it works. He plays the victim well, the guy romantically in over his head ever better. Surrounding him with people this funny - Ryan Gosling, who knew? Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 29, 2011
Richer and more enjoyable than the other lame-stream comedies Hollywood has churned out this summer, even though it doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be when it grows up. Read full review
70
NPRBob MondelloJul 29, 2011
Grant the filmmakers the efficiency of their plotting, even if it reduces characters to types. And credit them with having assembled a cast capable of making the film's craziness and stupidity appealing, even if hitching actors of the caliber of Moore and Gosling (and to a lesser extent Carell and Stone) to material this thin is a little like hitching a Saturn rocket to a go-cart. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJul 28, 2011
The movie, true to its own PG-13 rating, opts for mildness, modesty and chastened optimism. At the same time, though, it seems to know that a crueler, more cynical rendering of its story - a "Bitter, Hopeless, Love" - lurks between the lines. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 27, 2011
Stone is becoming a dependable go-to choice for comedies, brimming with charisma. Read full review
70
Village VoiceKarina LongworthJul 26, 2011
Shooting on grainy, high-speed film stock with an often handheld camera, working with a suite of actors who are game to both play light and silly and dig deep, Ficarra and Requa lend a naturalism to highly contrived, patently absurd situations. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid DenbyJul 24, 2011
A genial, messy comedy of marital discord and mismatched lovers. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 24, 2011
The script, by Dan Fogelman, is unusually and gratifyingly bisexual - i.e., it boasts scenes from both the male and female points of view! Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttJul 23, 2011
The movie suffers perhaps from too many characters and subplots but all the actors appear to have fun with their characters. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJul 28, 2011
As far as nonraunchy, adult-geared rom-coms go these days, Crazy, Stupid, Love. leads the pack by several heads. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 27, 2011
There are laughs that stick in your throat, when they aren't broad strokes shattering a forlorn mood that occasionally makes the movie feel like a companion piece to "Magnolia," or any film depicting downbeat people realizing they have more sorrow in common than expected. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnJul 26, 2011
Unquestionably stands above the market standard for middlebrow comedies, but it repeatedly approaches greatness and stands down, beholden to forces quite possibly beyond the directors' control. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJul 28, 2011
Directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra were weaned on earthy comedies like "Bad Santa," and every moment of mature insight in Crazy, Stupid, Love is answered by a scene of formulaic farce. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigJul 27, 2011
Sometimes Crazy, Stupid, Love captures the complexity, humor and sweetness of relationships. But in several scenes, the film takes that insight and replaces it with farcical coincidences and strained scenarios that undercut the poignancy and wit. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJul 29, 2011
It's hard to ignore the fact that very little in the movie feels true - no one clicks as a couple, and there are carefully contrived coincidences around every corner. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichJul 28, 2011
It's especially disappointing when the story takes an inevitable turn to starry-eyed mush, dulling the sharp satire of the crazy, stupid ins and outs of romantic entanglement with an unconvincingly saccharine one-true-love-for-all moral. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn LevyJul 28, 2011
At 118 minutes it's longer than "The Philadelphia Story" or "Annie Hall" or "When Harry Met Sally" or "500 Days of Summer" or, well, you get it. Working from a script by Dan Fogelman that wasn't overly bright or sharp to begin with, directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa dawdle and stretch and repeat themselves, until what should have been light and brisk becomes leaden and overdone. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 28, 2011
With its contrived setups, preposterous coincidences and calculated sentimentalism, Crazy, Stupid, Love seems beamed from the same alternate reality as "Larry Crowne." We might enjoy the ride while we're on it, but it will seem like a visit to another planet once we're home. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderBen SachsJul 28, 2011
As in the directors' earlier work, the humor is rooted in humiliation, but the execution here is tepid and indecisive, possibly because the big-name stars need to seem charming no matter how loathsome or idiotic their behavior. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 28, 2011
This is the "Babel" or "Crash" of ensemble romantic comedies, with screenwriter Dan Fogelman mapping out several narrative surprises that throw you for little loops as they're delivered. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerJul 27, 2011
This schizophrenic conception of Gosling's character is indicative of the film's largely dichotomous view of romantic relationships. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedJul 26, 2011
What to say about an uphill slog called Crazy, Stupid, Love? It's not nearly crazy enough to clear the clogged arteries of summer comedies, and when the love appears, it's in all the wrong places. Oh well, at least they nailed the stupid part. Read full review
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