Starring Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Alex Kingston and Oliver Muirhead.
Directed by Drake Doremus.
Released 27th of January
In a nutshell: A young British girl who’s studying in LA falls in love with a local student and then overstays her visa terms and they try to keep their relationship going despite living so far apart.
You’d almost think that this was going to be a gushing romantic tale but it’s not. Drawing on director Drake Doremus’ experiences, Like Crazy is an indie movie that tells a tale that is quite similar to an awful lot of other indie movies; the intensity of young love and how it leads to bad decisions.
Doremus gets some nicely improvised performances from the cast but unfortunately the performances are marred in that the characters themselves are kind of unlikeable particularly Anton Yelchin’s, his Jacob is passive yet still self-serving, when Jones’ Anna informs him that she’s going to break the visa terms in order to stay with him he basically goes “alright” then when she’s refused entry he faff’s about the airport and carries on his life. Anna who seems to be the more pro-active of the two but can’t seem to let go of the relationship even though they appear to have mutually agreed that they just be friends. She throws herself into a journalism career and goes drinking but still pines for Jacob who’s now got a relationship with Sam (played by Jennifer Lawrence) but after one call dumps her and flies to the UK for a brief rekindling of their love. The idea of them getting married in order to overcome the visa ban is put into their heads by Anna’s parents (played with a lot of charm and energy by Alex Kingston and Oliver Muirhead)
Yelchin is a fine actor and you feel that his Jacob is a real character but you think he’s a bit of a tool especially of Sam, a girl that loves him deeply and even takes him back when he returns from the UK. Jones plays Anna with a quirkiness and honesty that’s admirable but for someone who’s chosen a profession like journalism she seems to be totally run by her emotions and has no objective reasoning skills, as in her poor decision making. I did think the end of the movie was tonally right and a lot of films don’t get that right.
Like Crazy is a decent indie film that doesn’t really stand out from the pack (isn’t that the opposite of indie?) It also has characters that may drive you crazy.
5/10
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