Crazy, Stupid, Love" — how could you not love a movie with a title like that? Well, if you're the film's distributor, maybe: Warner tamely re-titled it "Love Again" for the local market (just as "Friends With Benefits" was neutered into "Stay Friends"). Clearly they want it to seem more like a love-conquers-all feel-good comedy like "Love Actually."
"Crazy, Stupid, Love," though, is less about the happily ever after than the hopeless, infuriating, bang-your-head-against-the-wall amour fou (and the French would have a word for it, wouldn't they?). It's about how what makes sense and what your heart requires you to do can be two different things, and the agonies that ensue. It's also a wickedly funny film that takes a handful of misunderstandings and builds them to a hilarious climax worthy of the best screwball comedies.
The premise starts with a divorce — average family guy Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) suddenly gets the boot from his wife of 20 years, Emily (played by a typecast Julianne Moore), who's having an affair with her coworker (Kevin Bacon, enjoying a late-career surge in playing slime-balls). Cal wallows in self-pity, oblivious to the fact that the high school teen babysitter he employs (Analeigh Tipton) has a raging crush on him, or that his young son (Jonah Bobo) is similarly infatuated with his sitter.