Director: Drake Doremus
Starring: Felicity Jones, Anton Yelchin
Rating: 3/5
Release Date: 1 March
By Keeva Stratton
Like Crazy takes an intimate look inside one couple’s relationship that is torn apart through the tyranny of distance. She (Felicity Jones) is a student from London studying abroad in California, which he (Anton Yelchin) calls home. They fall madly and hopelessly in love, and their infatuation overrules their common sense, causing her to overstay her visa. (A simple error that the US government takes quite seriously, it would seem).
Unable to be together in the US, they must now attempt to maintain their passions long distance, which proves challenging, and they soon find themselves suspended in a painful limbo of love—unable to be together and unable to move on.
Where the film succeeds is in its brutal portrayal of the emotional minefield of first love. These oft life-defining relationships can cause a litany of problems when they’re not allowed to run through to their natural demise. The heart-fluttering intensity, the heady nostalgia and the simpler time they evoke can make them seem more perfect than they actually were—making these relationships the unrealistic measure of all to come, and especially hard to let go of.
Where the film fails however, is that it can be hit and miss with how it engages with the audience. If you can relate to the couple (and the actors), you will no doubt spend a cinematic hour or two reminiscing on your own past loves. If you can’t, the lack of engagement makes the film tedious and you might just find yourself wishing this loved-up duo a bitter demise.
Like Crazy attempts to capture the mania, the pain and the heightened indulgence of first love in an honest and full-frontal account. It’s raw and offers little by way of Hollywood gloss, which won’t be to the liking of every viewer, but will probably strike a familiar chord with young lovers whose own lives are navigating the angst-filled struggle of first love.
