Like Crazy Review

I like crazy.

Always have.

So much so that whenever I tell my step mum about some crazy girl I’ve met, I’ll inevitably be met with a sigh on the other end of the phone.

Which means Drake Doremus’ Like Crazy should be a perfect match for me.

And, as so many good stories are, this one is all about a girl who meets a boy and feels something about him.

The girl is Anna, a wide eyed and full lipped English undergraduate studying at a Los Angeles university; and the boy is Jacob, just that little bit older and a teaching assistant for Anna’s writing class.

After catching each other’s eyes during her presentation on the roots of underground journalism, Anna decides to leave a note confessing her strictly unprofessional curiosity under the windscreen wiper of Jacob’s car.

As well as pointing out that she is most definitely not a nutbag.

Obviously intrigued, Jacob calls Anna up and arranges to see her.

Before you can say love at first write, the two quickly fall for each other and become completely inseparable.

When her school year ends along with her student visa, Anna realises she just can’t bear to be away from Jacob for the entire summer and outstays her legitimate welcome in the good ol’ US of A.

As he feels the same, Jacob doesn’t fight too hard to convince her otherwise and they lived happily ever after.

Ok, not quite.

Anna still has to go home for a family wedding at the end of the summer, and on her return she is stopped at customs and refused entry.

Having violated the conditions of her student visa, Anna has now been banished from the not so fair side of the Atlantic.

So now these two young lovers have to work out how to stay connected with an ocean placed between them.

Like Crazy is all about that special feeling you get when falling in love for the first time.

Directed by Doremus, who co wrote the script with Ben York Jones, Like Crazy captures all those little things you feel when you just click with someone; communicating this through a series of clever and cute cinematic touches, like the montage of Anna and Jacob spending all summer in bed set to the music of Dustin O’Halloran.

And while the supporting characters can feel a little generic at times, the two leads are convincing enough to make you empathise with their situation.

Anton Yelchin, as Jacob, continues to add to his impressive portfolio of roles for an actor so young, but it’s his on screen paramour and rising British star Felicity Jones who is the beating heart of Like Crazy.

She gives a genuine credibility to her character of Anna, not just through her on screen time with Yelchin, but also when they’re apart.

The pain distance can cause lovers when separated, and the lengths they’ll undertake to numb this feeling, are etched perfectly across Jones’ face.

To its credit, Like Crazy stays true to life til the very end.

And while it’s not perfect, which is pretty apt given the subject matter, I still loved this like crazy.

Jonathan Campbell

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January 2012
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