Day 132: Crazy, Stupid, Love

After his wife cheats on him and says she wants a divorce, Cal (Steve Carell) spends his time moping in a bar until he is taken under the wing of big time womaniser Jacob (Ryan Gosling). He gets out of his slump and is reminded of what it’s like to make an effort with women, but he really just wants to be with his wife again.

I was expecting this to be dreadful and it was not that at all. Of course some parts were cheesy but on the whole, I liked it. It was interesting to me that Cal accepted that his wife cheated on him and that he still wanted to be with her. I didn’t like that he seemed to be taking all the blame on himself; just because he’s not really been exciting anymore doesn’t mean it should be alright that she cheats on him. He believes she is ‘the one’ and that he wants to be with her no matter what. Don’t really know if I’m a fan of the whole ‘the one’ thing. I just don’t see how it’s possible that there’s just one person out there for you. Especially if that person would then cheat on you.

I wanted to write more but, y’know, alcohol. So.

7/10

Day 69: Half Nelson

Trying to balance being a teacher and being an addict is proving difficult for Dan (Ryan Gosling). One of his students, Drey (Shareeka Epps), discovers his habit and the two become friends.

Drey comes across as quite lonely. Her mother is a paramedic who is working all the shifts she can in order to have some money and her brother is in prison, so she’s left pretty much to herself. One night she catches Dan smoking crack in the locker room at school and she stays with him while he goes through the effects. They seem to bond in that moment and from then on the two care about each other. He tries to help her stay away from her drug dealer friend but it’s obviously difficult for him to justify this since he can’t function on a day-to-day basis without drugs in his system. He tries to push her away but when he’s close to hitting bottom, she is there for him. It looks like he’s going to clean up and it seems to be because he has her looking out for him. It just takes one person.

“Change moves in spirals, not circles. For example, the sun goes up and then it comes down but every time that happens, what do you get? You get a new day. You get a new one. When you breathe, you inhale and then you exhale but every single time that you do that, you’re a little bit different than the one before. We’re always changing. And it’s important to know that there are some changes you can’t control but that there are others you can.”

8/10