Crazy, Stupid, Love.(2011)

Plot Summary

• Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) is a middle-aged man who learns that his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) cheated on him with a coworker, David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon), and wants a divorce. They have a son named Robbie. When Emily would not stop talking on their way home from dinner, Cal steps out of their moving vehicle and falls on the road. Cal promises to move out the same night and sign whatever paper Emily wants. Emily tries to communicate to Cal that she is having a mid-life crisis, but Cal begs her to stop talking. After moving into his own apartment, Cal goes to a bar night after night, talking loudly about his divorce, until he attracts the attention of a young man named Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling). Cal was driving all the women away with his pathetic, self-deprecating talk about his cheating wife.Jacob is a womanizer who beds women each night, although a young woman named Hannah (Emma Stone) recently had rejected his advances. Jacob takes pity on Cal and offers to teach him how-to pick-up women. Jacob says that Cal is drinking watered down cranberry vodka like a 14-year-old girl, and is wearing 44, when he should wear a 42 regular. He has a super-cuts haircut. Jacob says that when he is done with Cal, Emily will rue the day she cheated on him. Jacob takes Cal shopping and gives him a complete makeover, with new clothes, a new wallet (Cal had a Velcro wallet), a facial, new shoes and a new haircut as well. Jacob also teaches Cal to be confident around women. Cal watches as Jacob works the bars to pick up women at will.Meanwhile David wants to date Emily, but she keeps pushing back on him and says that she regrets their hook up which led to her divorce from Cal. One day Emily brings Robbie to her office, and David tries to make friends with him. Robbie tells David that Cal is better than him in every respect and that he is never going to give up on Emily. Robbie is clear that in every scenario Cal and Emily end up back together.Using Jacob's teachings, Cal seduces Kate (Marissa Tomei) at the bar. At first, Cal comes on too strong and Kate is about to leave. But then Cal breaks down and becomes himself and tells Kate about all his anxieties and vulnerabilities in life. Cal admits that he has only slept with one woman in his entire life and that he wants to show off Kate to his wife to make her jealous. Kate takes Cal home and they end up having sex. After this encounter, Cal manages to successfully seduce other women in the bar. He sees Emily again at his son Robbie's (Jonah Bobo) parent-teacher conference. The meeting goes well until they discover Robbie's teacher is Kate, who reveals to Emily that she and Cal slept together. Emily leaves in disgust and begins actively dating David.Meanwhile, Hannah, a recent law school graduate, is expecting her boyfriend, Richard (Josh Groban) to propose marriage while they celebrate her passing the bar exam, but he does not, which hurts Hannah's feelings. Hannah returns to the bar where she originally rejected Jacob's advances and kisses Jacob passionately. The two return to Jacob's home to have sex, but end up talking to each other all night and making a connection. Jacob starts a relationship with Hannah, and he becomes distant from Cal.At the same time, Robbie (Cal and Emily's 13 year old son) makes numerous grand gestures to try to win the heart of his 17-year-old babysitter, Jessica Riley (Lio Tipton), who actually has a crush on Cal. Robbie feels a connection with Jessica and she spends a lot of time at their house and has even walked in on his masturbating in his bed. Robbie says that he has a picture of Jessica and thinks of her the whole time while he is doing it. Robbie makes several attempts to impress upon Jessica that there are several couple with an age difference (Mila Kunis and Ashton Kucher) and love is not hindered by that. Cal drops Jessica home, and she tries to tell him about her crush on him, but Cal is preoccupied about his divorce with Emily and gives no attention to Jessica or to what she is saying. Cal is friends with Bernie, Jessica's father, while Emily is friends with Claire, Jessica's mother.Jessica is trying to get Cal's attention, but is not getting anywhere. On the advice of her classmate Madison (Julianna Guill), Jessica takes naked photos of herself to send to Cal and tucks them away in an envelope inside her dresser drawer. Later, when Emily calls Cal under the guise of needing help with the house's pilot light, Cal decides to try and win her back. Meanwhile, Jacob returns Cal's calls and asks for advice about starting a real relationship.Jessica's mother, Claire (Beth Littleford) discovers Jessica's naked photos addressed to Cal in her drawer and shows them to Jessica's father, Bernie (John Carroll Lynch). He rushes to the Weaver residence to confront him about the photos.Cal and his kids create a makeshift mini golf set in their backyard to remind Emily of their first date. During the gathering, Jacob and Hannah show up at the house, and Hannah is revealed to be Cal and Emily's daughter born to them following Emily's teenage pregnancy. Cal is appalled that Jacob is dating his daughter and forbids her to see him. At that moment, Bernie shows up and attacks Cal. Jessica arrives and tells her father that Cal knew nothing of the pictures. Then David arrives on the scene to return Emily's sweater from a previous date. Cal, Jacob, David, and Bernie then get into a scuffle which is soon broken up by the police.Cal starts spending his time at the bar again and receives a visit from Jacob, who confesses that he is in love with Hannah. Cal refuses to approve of their relationship. Jacob harbors no ill feelings, but rather respects him and praises him for being a great father.At Robbie's eighth grade graduation, Robbie is the Salutatorian and gives a pessimistic speech about how he no longer believes in true love and soulmates. Cal stops him and instead begins to recount his courtship with Emily to the audience, saying that, while he doesn't know if things will work out, he will never give up on Emily. With renewed faith, Robbie reaffirms his love for Jessica, to the audience's applause. After the ceremony, Cal gives Jacob and Hannah his blessing.Jessica gives Robbie an envelope containing the photos of herself to "get him through high school". Cal and Emily have a laugh talking about the events that have transpired the past year.

Storyline

• Cal (Steve Carell) and Emily (Julianne Moore) have the perfect life together living the American dream... until Emily asks for a divorce. Now Cal, Mr Husband, has to navigate the single scene with a little help from his professional bachelor friend Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling). Make that a lot of help... — Anonymous Cal and Emily have been married for over 20 years. But when Cal learns that Emily had an affair he moves out. He would then go to a bar and whine about what happened. Jacob, a regular at the bar, upon hearing his woes offers to help him. By giving him a makeover and teaching him how to be a player. It isn't long before he's picking up someone frequently. But eventually he realizes he still loves Emily and wishes he could go back. At the same time his son is nursing a crush on his baby sitter who doesn't feel the same way. And even Jacob gets a new outlook when he starts to feel something about a girl he tried to pick up earlier, but she turned him down because she has a boyfriend. — rcs0411@yahoo.com Cal Weaver is in a mid-life rut and doesn't even realize it, until Emily Weaver née Boyle, his wife of twenty-five years, his high school sweetheart, and the only woman he's ever been with, asks him for a divorce. She still loves him but not what he's become. That rut has even led to her having an affair with her co-worker, David Lindhagen, who would like that relationship to be permanent. A young, handsome, well appointed, and seemingly wealthy young man named Jacob Palmer notices what a sad sack of a man Cal is because of his situation. Jacob, a Lothario of a man who can have his pick of women with who he only wants one-night stands, offers to help Cal get his manly mojo back to make Emily regret ever wanting to divorce him, and make him move on with his life. Although Cal accepts Jacob's help, the one part he may not really want is moving on from Emily. As Jacob helps Cal, Jacob himself may come to the realization that there is more to life than one-night stands, especially after he meets a young law student named Hannah, who is going through her own relationship issues. A happy romantic ending for both Cal and Jacob with their respective loves is hindered by some unknown information, including Cal's best friend's seventeen year old daughter, Jessica Riley, being secretly in love with him, while Cal's thirteen year old son, Robbie Weaver, is in turn in love with Jessica. — Huggo Over dinner, fortysomething Cal's almost twenty-five-year marriage to his high school beloved, Emily, collapses after one dreaded little sentence: she wants a divorce to take a chance on love with a man who doesn't take her for granted. Helpless, hopeless, and like a fish out of water, the now-single Cal finds himself out on a limb, until he chances upon the self-confident Lothario and exceptional pickup artist, Jacob, who decides to take him under his wing. Now, nothing will ever be the same again--and as the rusty and pitiable seducer in the making rediscovers his latent manliness--something utterly unpredictable happens: Jacob, too, is susceptible to the intoxicating feeling of deep affection. Who said love was easy? — Nick Riganas