Crazy, Stupid, Love

There's a moment in Crazy, Stupid, Love where a plot revelation is so beautifully timed it almost redeems the sheer phoniness of what has gone before, but then the scene in question spins rapidly out of control, and the brief hope that this might develop into something more than a hackneyed mess is snuffed out. With Steve Carell and Julianne Moore mismatched as the divorced couple Cal and Emily at the centre of this tedious story, it's left to Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone to inject some life – their relaxed performances seem to belong to another film entirely. Add a further subplot between Cal's son and his babysitter and the film already feels overstuffed, leaving talented actors like Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei (embarrassing herself) at the margins. Crazy, Stupid, Love feels like it wants to please everyone, but you feel the strain at every turn. It's only when Gosling and Stone are allowed room to play that the movie come close to being funny, heartfelt, real. [Philip Concannon]