Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)

Somebody should have cut the babysitter subplot from Crazy, Stupid, Love., a middle schooler’s crush the movie plays as cute for way too long. Everything else is better than it has any right to be. Steve Carell does sad dad like it’s an Olympic event, Ryan Gosling plays a smooth talker who dresses like a catalog came to life, and the makeover montage is pure fun. Then Emma Stone walks in and the movie finally gets a pulse. Her scenes with Gosling are so loose and easy that you’d watch a whole movie of them just talking in his apartment. The big backyard blowup late in the film is a sitcom pileup, and it works anyway, which should be against the rules. Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon do a lot with very little. A 7.4 because the cast saves a script that keeps wandering off. $2,682 says you try the Dirty Dancing lift in your living room and both of you end up on the carpet.

What works: Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling have instant, easy chemistry, and Steve Carell makes heartbreak funny without making it cheap.

What doesn’t: The babysitter crush subplot is played as cute for far too long, and the script wanders between too many storylines.

Who it’s for: Anyone who wants a rom-com with real laughs and a twist they won’t see coming.