Like Crazy Review (2011)

Director: Drake Doremus

Writer: Drake Doremus

Genre: Romance/Drama

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Glass of milk - Felicity Jones

There is an American guy and a British girl. They meet at college in Los Angeles. They fall in love (“we’re both young, hot, and hip. Yay!”). Dilemma: British girl has to go back to England because her visa expires, but she violates her visa and stays in Los Angeles because she’s so hopelessly in love with American guy. When British girl finally goes back to England, she is not allowed back into the U.S. because of her previous visa violation and thus American guy and British girl must face the challenges and pain of a long distance relationship.

The American guy is named Jacob, and is played excellently by Anton Yelchin, who you know from such masterworks (not) as Fright Night, Terminator Salvation, and Star Trek.  This is, by far, Yelchin’s best role yet. Anna, the British girl, is played by Felicity Jones, who you don’t know unless you’re a British television fan. Jones steals the movie. It’s impossible to take your eyes off her, as she demands your attention with a distinct screen presence that radiates in every scene. With the arrival of Elizabeth Olsen in the newly released Martha Marcy May Marlene and Felicity Jones in Like Crazy, it’s been an amazing couple of weeks in terms of talented young actresses emerging in their first starring roles. Like Crazy works because of the exceptional performances by Yelchin and Jones – they make the audience feel their joy during happy times, and feel their pain during the not-so-happy times (which there are a lot of).

The talented director Drake Doremus employs a very unique filmmaking style, where nearly all the dialogue in the movie is improvised by the actors, based off outlines written by Doremus.  When filming, Doremus would let scenes play out for as long as 15 minutes just letting the actors riff off each other, which helps gives the film a very unique feel. The improvisation plus the decision to shoot the film hand held, is no doubt an attempt by Doremus to give the film a strong sense of realism, though the hand held camera work feels gimmicky at times. I love “indie-style” cinematography more than anyone, but I felt like Doremus was trying too hard at times when he should have just been using a tripod.

I had super high expectations for this film. The buzz from Sundance was incredible (it won the Grand Jury prize), I thought the film’s trailer was one of the best trailers of the year, and I generally love indie romance movies. Some of my favorite films of all time are Garden State, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 500 Days of Summer, and Lost in Translation and I was expecting, perhaps unfairly, that Like Crazy would place itself in the ranks of films like those. Unfortunately, while it’s a very good movie, it doesn’t even come close to touching the classics of the “indie-romance” genre.

The main thing that keeps Like Crazy out of the great category is that the male protagonist, Jacob, is basically a jerk. It’s hard to root for a guy that doesn’t make any sacrifices for his relationship with Anna to work and completely manipulates another female character (Jennifer Lawrence), who utterly loves him, only to abandon her multiple times.  Also, without giving too much away, there are certain things about Jacob and Anna’s relationship that just don’t really make sense as the film progresses.

This movie has all the ingredients of a great love story but the final dish only comes out partially cooked. Still, the acting is amazing and you will feel real emotions during Like Crazy’s 90 minute duration. I loved the semi-ambiguous ending that leaves room for interpretation but still feels like the completion of the story, unlike the ending to Martha Marcy May Marlene. The “shower-scene” finale has no dialogue, yet somehow it says so much. The movie raises deep questions about the existence of love and the validity of the theory that every person has one true soul mate.

I think Like Crazy is definitely a movie worth seeing it just didn’t live up to my Mount Everest of self-imposed hype. If you’re feeling depressed about long distance relationships after seeing Like Crazy, which you probably will be, you should check out last year’s very underrated box office failure Going the Distance. This movie, starring Justin Long and Drew Barrymore, provides a much lighter take on the challenges of a long distance relationship, while still remaining truthful.