The three words that make up the title of this film are all pretty much synonymous with each other when you talk about any one of them. Love is something that makes a lot of people crazy and can be rather stupid, just like how when you’re crazy you can get really stupid. So the idea of a man and woman who’ve been married for 25 years suddenly getting a divorce falls into the realm of insanity and pretty stupid from the outside looking in. From the perspective of Cal (Steven Carell) it seems that he thought it was pretty insane.

This sudden change in Cal’s life somehow eventually leads him to being befriended by Jacob (Ryan Gosling) who ends up becoming his tutor in how to become a man’s man, the man who leaves the bar with the sexy girl every night of the wee, love becomes distorted and ridiculous.

The film’s main focus is on the characters of Cal and Jacob. Cal is the stereotypical married man who’s still in love with the same woman. Jacob is the guy that thinks love is this myth that people tell their children about in fairy tales to make sure that they have nice dreams and eventually leads to nothing but disappointment, so he skips that step and just keeps it at the fun physical level. Jacob however has this theory tested by the wonderful Hannah (Emma Stone) who at first refuses all of his advances and then we see where it takes Jacob.

Some may complain about the film’s slightly overabundant number of plot lines. Maybe the inclusion of the Jessica (Analeigh Tipton) and Robbie (Jonah Bobo) may have been too much, but honestly the film made it work.

Where this film truly succeeds is by playing into all the same tropes that are normal about the multiple plot filled romantic comedy like this and completely surprising me by paying off on every single one of those scenes that could’ve been throwaway gags in a satisfying way, except maybe that of David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon) who at his core is just a plot device to separate Cal and Emily (Julianne Moore) so that Cal can meet Jacob and get the movie going. David truly could’ve not been seen in the movie and it would’ve been fine, but I’m not going to fault the filmmakers for that at this point since honestly I had so much fun otherwise.

The film is a testament to how strong an emotion love is. It isn’t easily quelled, while at the very same time it can easily overthrow every other emotion or logic that governs your current life. Which is what you’re going to love or hate about it. If you’re like Jacob and aren’t a true believer in love then you’re going to have a tough time buying this movie, but if you have a heart and it still beats then this movie will win you over and over again.

Rating: 8.5/10