Like Crazy features star-crossed lovers separated by immigration, who end up attempting a long-distance relationship. Is it worth the heartache?
Like Crazy is a wonderful, if slightly uneven, valentine to the blissful abandon of young love. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Dramatic Film at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, Drake Doremus directs a stellar cast with notably strong performances by Felicity Jones (The Tempest) and Anton Yelchin (Star Trek). For a film that begins with a meet-cute, it develops into a document of how blissful and devastating one’s first love can be.
The film’s romance begin rather innocently: Anna (Jones), a British exchange student, meets Jacob (Yelchin), a design student from the same university. After a significant amount of sweet nothings, the couple must face the deadline of Anna’s student visa – and in a gesture of impulse, Anna decides to stay.
Romantic? Yes. Stupid? Very.
A few months later, she flies back to London for a cousin’s wedding, only to return to the United States and face deportation. The rest of the film finds the estranged couple working hard on a long distance relationship – eventually revealing a couple who no longer really desire one another, but rather desire the thrilling attempt to live up to romantic ideals.
Undoubtedly, the best thing about Like Crazy is its nuanced portrayals of Anna and Jacob. Both Jones and Yelchin carry their roles tremendously well, notably in the film’s first act where we find the couple in blissful abandon. Indeed, there’s genuine chemistry between the two, creating a feeling of vicarious experience of young love. As the film develops further however, Jones ups the ante; showing herself as an actress of full potential, able to display convincing emotional range – from implosive yearning to emotional absence – with one look.
The supporting cast is never perfunctory, either: Jennifer Lawrence (X:Men: First Class) as Sam, Jacob’s part-time girlfriend, is memorable and tragic in a fleeting role; and Anna’s whisky-loving parents are effective as subtle romantic models.
An easy film to compare Like Crazy to is 2010’s Blue Valentine, another cinematic couple whose rosy beginnings eventually lead to chaos. Certainly, the drama in Like Crazy draws from a more recognizable experience than Blue Valentine. As critics of Like Crazy have pointed out, however, this allows the film to be read two ways: either as a film with over-privileged whiny teenagers or as a couple tragically attempting to live up to their romantic delusions. Of course, this all depends on the audiences’ willingness to buy into the film’s conceit yet because of the acting, most viewers will sway towards the latter reading.
That said; the film is not greater than the sum of its parts. With several years condensed into less than two hours, the film’s jump cuts attempt to create a degree of emotional momentum, but are a tad unconvincing. The film looses steam during the final act, as the couple’s indecisiveness begins to replicate itself. In defense however, since Like Crazy features Anna and Jacob as characters that prefer to relish specific moments of a relationship rather than its entirety, these tidbits are nonetheless effective and evocative by themselves.
Like Crazy is an ambitious little gem. Boasting memorable performances, the film displays first love in all its naive and blissful glory, indifferent of repercussions in favor of romantic abandon. Not only that, it contemplates first love’s lasting effects, with a desire and intensity that could never be matched, as it’s forever etched in fantasy. Indeed, Anna and Jacob are romantic – the same reason why these two will never be together.
Reynald Castaneda
4 1/2 Stars