This is a love story that was quite interesting to me, because the parts that didn't work were the parts dealing with the actual love. Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin were both excellent on their own, burning with pain while trying to move on with their life and just exist with this hole inside of them. However it was when they were together that the film lost it's appeal for me. I couldn't feel any chemistry between them, so I had no stake in a large majority of it because I didn't understand why they wanted to be together. Even with their first meeting they seemed so dour together, I never once felt any genuine love there.
The conversations between them were good and honest, albeit typical, and the fact that they improvised a lot of their dialogue makes it more impressive. Unfortunately the premise hinges on an event that I couldn't realistically buy for a second so any sadness the characters felt didn't have enough of an impact on me because there was always this looming anger towards them for being so dumb and getting themselves in this situation. The ending is a smart move, but it's also a pretty straight Graduate rip-off, so I can't commend it too much.
I'm harping a lot on the things that I didn't like about the film, but I think ultimately there were more positives than negatives for me. The actors really shined individually, even if they didn't sell the core relationship for me, and quite a few of their separate scenes gave me an emotional reaction, albeit not to the extreme that they should have hit me. So I'm pretty lukewarm on it overall, but I at least admired the acting.
Like Crazy
2011
Action / Drama / Romance
Like Crazy
2011
Action / Drama / Romance
Keywords: parentsbloggerchaircustomsstudent visa
Plot summary
Anna and Jacob fall instantly in love when they meet as students at an L.A. university. But Anna is British and when graduation approaches, Anna decides to stay and violate her student visa rather than returning to England. After a visit home, she is then unable to return to the United States. While fighting customs and immigration battles, Anna and Jacob must decide if their relationship is worth the distance and the hardship.
Uploaded by: OTTO
Director
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Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
A lukewarm reaction.
A story of love, depending on what love really is
Anna (Felicity Jones) and Jacob (Anton Yelchin) are in love with each like crazy. Hence the title, "Like Crazy". They are in, or want to be in, a grown-up relationship — one where they act like adults and are just a part of each other's lives. But they met each other at college and one stupid idea forces them to make grown-up decisions that will affect the rest of their lives quicker than they would have liked.
"Like Crazy" is just about their relationship. We watch as they fall in love, grow apart, find a middle road, and then try and pick an extreme. Anna is a writer and Jacob is a furniture constructor. But their lives are just so inconsequential to the film which is the way it has to be when it is only about their relationship.
The film is minimal in story, in characters, in budget, and in production. And that's what makes it so sweet. Made for only $250,000 and edited in the director's bedroom, it's a story and film of passion.
I found it to be very similar to "Blue Valentine" (2010),but perhaps not as impactful — at least to me. Both played to rave reviews at Sundance, last year "Blue" picked up the Grand Jury Prize nomination, this year "Crazy" got the Jury win for both director Drake Doremus and actress Felicity Jones.
I first saw Felicity Jones last year in "Cemetery Junction" (2010). She played this beautifully innocent girl in a town where innocence just doesn't really exist. In "Like Crazy" she plays a beautiful, adult-like young woman growing up in a world of love but learns that she might not know what love is after all.
A romance without foundations
Like Crazy is an uninspired transatlantic love story.
Jacob (Anton Yelchin) and Anna (Felicity Jones) meet in college in California. Anna is from England and studying in America on a student visa. She takes a shine to Jacob and both start a relationship when Anna leaves a note for him on his car windshield.
It is love at first sight but Anna overstays her visa and is deported to England. Not being able to return to America frustrates Anna so a scheme is hatched to get married with Jacob in London.
Difficulties arise in their relationship as Anna still cannot get her marriage visa approved. Being apart causes further tensions between them. Both begin a relationship in their respective countries.
The characters are undercooked and self centred. The story is underdeveloped. There could had been a better drama about two people forced apart from the machinations of the visa system. This was a tedious, lifeless independent film.