Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Movie review by S. Jhoanna Robledo, Common Sense Media
Crazy, Stupid, Love. Poster Image

Common Sense says

age 14+

Heartfelt dramedy has strong story and characters.

PG-13 2011 107 minutes
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Parents say

age 15+

Based on 14 reviews

Kids say

age 13+

Based on 36 reviews

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A Lot or a Little?

The parents' guide to what's in this movie.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this affecting, refreshing dramedy about a man re-entering the dating life after decades and finding himself in the process deals head-on with some mature subjects, including infidelity and the art of seduction. Plenty of scenes show a guy teaching another how to pick up women and then actually doing so. That said, the actual sex scenes, which involve no nudity beyond a guy taking his shirt off and clothed couples kissing and straddling each other, are fairly tame. There's also a fair bit of social drinking and swearing (including "f--k" and "s--t"), and a teen character takes risqué pictures of herself.

Community Reviews

wonder dove
wonder dove Adult
August 5, 2013
age 15+

PG-13, Really?

This could pass for an R-rated film if they threw in a couple more f-bombs! Really. I got this film as a gift and already expected the content to be raunchy - which isn't always bad but to target a movie like that towards the younger crowd is wrong. It's very sexual with plenty of inappropriate topics. Was it any good? It definitely kept me watching and yes it was pretty enjoyable overall. However, one of the main characters (Ryan Gosling) was unbearably annoying most of the time - he plays one of those "I'm too cool for you" macho guys who tries to get every woman into bed with him. The whole film basically is a bad influence, but it's mindless fun for the older crowd. Language is bad for a PG-13, you hear f-words, sh*t, d*ck, @sshole...etc the list goes on. Violence is mild but has some bickering between characters, a fight. Sexual content is extremely frequent (Commonsense did not list half of it - so here we go!), part of the opening scene a young seventeen year old girl is babysitting a thirteen year old boy and walks in on him masturbating. Same girl has a strong crush on the thirteen year old boys 40-something father. Thirteen year old boy has a huge crush on the seventeen year old babysitter and tells her he loves her frequently. Seventeen year old takes naked pictures of herself to give to the older man - her parents eventually find out. Girl gets explicit advice from another girl at school on how to attract older men. Guys go to bars frequently to see who they can take home to bed. Guy shows another married guy how to do it. Major make-out pre-sex scene of a married man and another woman (nothing shown). Cheating between married couples, talk of a divorce. Lots of skimpy outfits. Making out in bed. Sex discussions. There is plenty of drinking and bar scenes - girl chugs down alcohol to calm her nerves before sleeping with a guy she just met. This film is not appropriate for kids or teens under 16!!

This title has:

Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
2 people found this helpful.
tmahoney
tmahoney Adult
October 17, 2022
age 17+
OK for a 17 year old, but for younger kids I can’t understand why they should see a teenage girl drive through a red light (all good because the drivers that nearly hit her didn’t end up getting injured and besides, she was in a hurry); then try to date an adult man; then give nude selfies to a young kid; and if an adult woman gets upset at her would-be fiancé, the best thing to do to get back at him is to sleep with a hot guy she doesn’t know. Our nation’s children are scoring poorly on standardized tests and suffering increasingly with mental illness and seem lost, and I think one place to look for a cause is parents rating this film as OK for 14 year olds. The cast is stellar and the performances great— so click “Play” — if you have 17-year olds or above. But I hope we will all cringe at the messages that Hollywood, and we, are sending to our kids.
1 person found this helpful.
See all 14 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) has been in love with his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), since high school, marrying her at 17. So it's no understatement to say that his world falls to pieces when she declares over dinner at a restaurant that she has strayed and thinks she wants a divorce. Cal has no idea how to be single, spending his first few weeks perched on a bar stool at a nightclub he'd passed many times but never had the guts to enter. The entire scene is foreign to him ... until confident Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling), a certified womanizer who can persuade almost any girl to go home with him, takes Cal under his wing and decides to teach him how to take interest in both himself and other women. But even Jacob isn't immune to the charms of that someone special -- in this case, Hannah (Emma Stone), on whom his usual approach doesn't seem to work. Meanwhile, Cal's 13-year-old son (Jonah Bobo) is in love with his 17-year-old babysitter (Annaleigh Tipton), who happens to be smitten with Cal.

Is It Any Good?

CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE is surprising, engaging, and astute about humans and relationships and nearly everything else that matters. And that's despite the fact that it hews fairly closely to romcom and buddy comedy conventions; it's both, with a huge heaping of drama, too. Carrell and Gosling are fantastic; neither overplays or underplays. Instead, they seem genuinely comfortable in their movie skins, living their roles rather than "acting" them. (It's nice to see Gosling act hilarious for a change.)

Actually, the entire cast is strong, notably Moore as a genuinely bereft, confused, searching woman who has grown tired of the routine but doesn't quite know how to fix it, and Stone, who sells her character with ease -- she's truly gifted. The best part, however, is the story itself. It's finely attuned to the ways in which complacency erodes our confidence and strips us of the urge to learn and discover. Being stuck in one place too long can doom marriages -- and ourselves.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how the movie portrays marriage problems. Is it realistic or "Hollywoodized"? How do problems between spouses affect a family?

  • Why is Jacob's seduction formula so successful? Does the movie glamorize this, or is it making a statement about such trickery?

  • A teen character takes some racy pictures of herself. What are the real-life consequences of that kind of action? Parents, talk to your kids about sexting and other potentially inappropriate behavior.

Movie Details

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