Like Crazy | Review
‘Like Crazy’ is a new romantic drama film by director Drake Doremus (‘Douchebag’). This is a beautiful and sweet story of two young adults falling in love and their lives over several years. Though definitely not perfect, ‘Like Crazy’ provides some of the most heartwarming and heartbreaking moments that comes with love in a romance film this year.
Jacob (Anton Yelchin, from ‘Star Trek’) and Anna (Felicity Jones) start off as two college students in Los Angeles. Anna is from the U.K., studying in LA with a student visa. When the two start a relationship just as graduation is around the corner, the problem arises concerning the long-distance relationship that would inevitably occur. After graduation, Anna decides to stay in California for just a few months longer, violating her visa. After a few months back in London, Anna tries to come back to LA, but is not allowed to due to her visa violation. Thus begins Jacob and Anna’s long-distance and problematic relationship over the course of several years.
The film moves at a fast pace, often depicting Jacob and Anna’s relationship through quick montages. This isn’t a bad thing per say, as the montages depict many sweet moments between the two. The film doesn’t have to show the couple’s first kiss, or first time having sex, or anything like that. It shows you different moments during their relationship that could relate to any viewer who has been in love or a romantic relationship before.
The interesting thing about ‘Like Crazy’ is that it doesn’t exactly root for Jacob and Anna’s relationship to end happily, though it also doesn’t root for it to end badly. The film shows the two having problems that could easily be fixed if the two were truly in love. For example, Jacob’s decision to not move to London is grounded by his “job.” He builds chairs and apparently cannot do so in London. This is a guy who is supposedly madly in love with the girl, but will not move to be with her. Anna tries much harder than Jacob on several occasions. Perhaps Anna is more in love than Jacob is.
Though this question regarding how much Jacob and Anna love one another is brought about during the film, ‘Like Crazy’ still depicts the two attempting to make their relationship last as long as possible. Whenever Jacob would visit Anna everything would seem perfect, as if nothing has changed. But when they’re separated in their respective home countries, it’s the exact opposite. Communication is broken, as the time differences causes difficulties. They may go on for days or even weeks without speaking to one another. At different points both Jacob and Anna have relationships with other attractive people; Jacob has Sam (played by Jennifer Lawrence, from ‘Winter’s Bone’ & ‘X-Men: First Class’) and Anna has Simon (Charlie Bewley, from ‘New Moon’ & ‘Eclipse’).
More problems come up when these new relationships are obviously easier and more effective. There’s nothing wrong with Sam nor Simon, which makes it harder to Jacob and Anna. All these people are in love, which makes it a little heartbreaking for the person or people on the other end (Spoiler alert: Jennifer Lawrence has the most emotional and heartbreaking scene in ‘Like Crazy’, even though she’s barely in the film).
‘Like Crazy’ is not a dialogue-driven film. It’s instead more focused on the feelings and emotions that run through Jacob and Anna during their problematic relationship. The conversations in the film are reported to be mostly improvised by the lead actors, which is beneficial to the film as the dialogue seem more genuine, sweet, and realistic. Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones are remarkable in their roles as the leads because the film is based so much on feelings and emotions. Yelchin and Jones’ performances are wonderful and it’s easy to understand what their individual character’s are thinking.
The ending may not be what most people would expect or like, but it’s one that begs an important question regarding Jacob and Anna’s love and relationship. ‘Like Crazy’ isn’t the super-emotional tear-jerker of a film like its marketing team suggests, but it’s still a sweet and honest romance that anyone can relate to, and it features potential star-making performances by Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones.
Three out of four Kents.
