Cal Weaver (Carell) must rebuild his life after finding out about his wife’s affair when she wants a divorce. He must reconnect with his children and meets Jacob Palmer (Gosling) who helps him change his image.
This film does not turn out to the usual romantic comedy, it takes many different twists and turns throughout. Just when you think that you have it all figured out and know the direction it is going in it suddenly changes to have some different meanings. The main thing in the film has to be the idea of a soul mate – that one person you are meant to be with.
Cal believes that his high school sweetheart and wife is his soul mate and he is not meant to be with anyone else. Hence taking it very hard when she tells him she wants a divorce. But she was the only woman he had been with until the split and he meet ladies man Jacob who taught him how to talk to women.
Jacob does not seem to believe in soul mates or even love. He has a very pleasing lifestyle as a bachelor until he meets as he puts it “the game changer”. I actually found the night he got with Hannah the best in the film, they had that one night when you spend it talking to someone and really fall hard for them. You get to know everything about them.
Robbie who is 13 is in love with his babysitter Jessica, and he believes that she is his soul mate despite the age gap between them. Obviously she does not feel the same way about him but who she thinks she is in love with causes some problems in the film.
If you haven’t seen this film yet I will not spoil the twist at the end . . . if you have seen the film, you know what twist I mean and I did not see that coming at all. The whole ending was quite difficult to predict as it really could have gone many different ways. I was unsure what direction it was going to end and still cannot quite decide whether or not I am happy about the ending.
I did enjoy this film as it was very different, it had some very funny moments but also some very touching moments. A very good balance of them both. You cannot help but like Steve Carell in which ever role you see him in, he manages to make you feel sorry for him. I thought Ryan Gosling was just brilliant and I would have loved to see more of him in this film.
