A Steve Carell Comedy On HBO Max Has One Of The Most Underappreciated Twists Ever

Keep "The Sixth Sense" and "Citizen Kane" and "The Usual Suspects." I'm here to tell you that one of the best twists in cinematic history happens in the third act of a romantic comedy starring Steve Carell called "Crazy, Stupid, Love." Plus, it's streaming on HBO Max right now.

Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa and penned by by Dan Fogelman, "Crazy, Stupid, Love" tells the story of Carell's Cal Weaver, who finds himself absolutely flabbergasted when his childhood sweetheart and wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), asks for a divorce and reveals that she slept with her coworker, David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon) in the process. Shaken by this development and left to start over in a tiny apartment while co-parenting his kids with Emily, Cal's life changes yet again when he meets Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling), a smooth womanizer who tries to teach Cal how to get back "out there" (you know, into the dating scene) after years of apparent wedded bliss.

So, what's the twist? Well, partway through the movie, Jacob finds himself absolutely smitten with a girl named Hannah (Emma Stone) that he meets at the bar he and Cal both frequent. After Hannah finally breaks up with her wet mop of a boyfriend (played, hilariously, by Josh Groban), she and Jacob start dating ... only for Jacob to discover that Hannah is Cal's eldest daughter, something the audience also didn't know.

This twist is, honestly, pretty perfect. Not only do Moore and Stone convincingly look like mother and daughter, but Cal's explanation — which is that he and Emily had Hannah when they were teenagers — also makes total sense within the narrative and explains why we only met Cal and Emily's younger kids Robbie and Molly (Jonah Bobo and Joey King) initially. Plus? It's really funny.

The twist in "Crazy, Stupid, Love" would be great all on its own, but it also happens during a particularly outstanding section of the movie where all of the supporting and main players come together to cause utter chaos. First, we have a blindfolded Emily — awaiting a surprise created by Cal, Robbie, and Molly so that Cal might try and win his estranged wife back — reacting in utter and literally blind confusion as Cal demands that Jacob and his eldest child Hannah "break up right now. (It certainly doesn't help that Emily rips off her blindfold and comments on how cute Jacob is in an inspired bit of improv by Julianne Moore, infuriating Cal even further, or that Hannah calls Cal "daddy," fully freaking Jacob out.) That's when things escalate even further, somehow.

Rather than center this entire situation on the Weaver family and Jacob, "Crazy, Stupid, Love" smartly lets all of its plotlines intertwine in this scene. As Cal and Jacob face off, Cal's neighbor and former friend Bernie (John Carroll Lynch) accuses Cal of seducing his teenage daughter Jessica (Lio Tipton), unaware that Jessica is secretly in love with Cal (who has no idea) and that Robbie is, in turn, in love with Jessica. Then, David Lindhagen shows up ... and for my money, Jacob assessing the situation and taking off his pinky ring to deck David is one of the funniest moments in Ryan Gosling's entire body of work.

This ends in a messy, silly, and really funny scuffle amongst the men while the women look on, disappointed — and the way it builds on itself makes for a perfect third act. "Crazy, Stupid, Love" might be a humble rom-com, but it's got an amazing twist.

Steve Carell has enjoyed a pretty phenomenal run since starring in "Crazy, Stupid, Love," but years after that movie made deserved waves with its excellent third act twist, Carell took on a somewhat familiar role in the HBO Max series "Rooster." Like Cal Weaver, Carell's Greg Russo in "Rooster" is still reeling from a divorce, though in the show (which was created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses), he and his wife Elizabeth (Connie Britton) have been apart for some time. In fact, Greg's daughter Katie (Charly Clive), who works as a professor at the fictional Ludlow College and recently found out about her husband and fellow professor Archie (Phil Dunster) having an affair with a graduate student, is closer to being the series' version of "Cal Weaver" than Carell's character is. Still, "Rooster" is mainly about Greg, who takes a job as a writer-in-residence at Ludlow to be closer to Katie as she grapples with her split from Archie, finding a new lease on life.

In both "Rooster" and "Crazy, Stupid, Love," we get to see the softer side of Carell as a performer, especially when you compare these performances to his incredible but often horrifying turn on "The Office" as the well-meaning yet buffoonish regional manager Michael Scott or his work as disgraced TV anchor Mitch Kessler on "The Morning Show." Luckily for you, you can stream both "Rooster" and "Crazy, Stupid, Love" on HBO Max if you need a heartwarming movie and TV marathon with Carell leading the way.