Love is crazy. And it’s also stupid. And only the acting prowess of Julianne Moore, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Emma Stone, could properly show why anyone in their right mind would engage in such an emotionally tumultuous activity. At the opening of this film, Cal (Steve Carell) gets dumped by his long-time wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), and in an effort to avoid her apologetic monologue, he literally jumps out of their moving car. She had an affair, and she leaves their marriage because it’s “broken.” Cal subsequently spends an inordinate amount of time lamenting to a bartender. It’s during these rants that Cal meets Jacob (Ryan Gosling), who can only be defined as a “pick-up artist.” Jacob takes an interest in Cal, and gives him a makeover to “get his manhood back.” The transformation becomes both external and internal, and the emotionally vapid Jacob unsuspectingly adopts some of Cal’s love-struck ideology in the process. There are some enjoyable sub-plots in this movie, which I won’t ruin, but let’s just say that Cal learns a thing or two about soul-mates from his un-jaded son. This movie proves that you don’t need a high-concept gimmick to keep a film afloat. When you have great actors who execute what is often thought of as ‘cheesy’ material, then you get an enjoyable movie that doesn’t feel like a chick-flick. My favorite line of this film came from Cal, who said, “I’ve loved her even when I hated her.” If you’ve ever been cursed and blessed with being in love — then I’m sure you can relate. OVERALL RATING: DISHTASTIC