Like Crazy (2011) User Reviews (198)

Like Promise

[WaxBellaAmours · 6/10 · 12 November 2011]

As the movie's title suggest, I truly wanted to fall in crazy love with "Like Crazy". By the end, I instead just gave it a pat on the shoulder and became more interested in what the stars and director would be doing after the movie than in the film that just screened. In a movie about the complications that ensue when an American guy named Jacob and a British girl named Anna meet in college, fall in love and then eventually are separated when the latter is denied entry back into the US after overstaying her visa, it's never as compelling as it very well should have been.

"Like Crazy", a big hit at the Sundance film festival, is well-made and has some scenes of heartbreaking immediacy that give it considerable promise. Unfortunately it only shines through it's individual moments, but as a whole it lacks a certain emotional center as the main romantic pairing, played by Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin, is just not convincing.

Not for lack of trying. Director Drake Doremus has certainly made a lovely film out of a very small budget, and again proves (after his first film Douchebag) that he has a way of coaxing some nuanced performances out of familiar character archetypes. It's refreshing to see a movie where people don't always know the perfect thing to say and end up saying what they actually feel, or feeling unable to say anything at all. And his understated mis-en-scene and on-the-cheap cinematography is quite impressive, bringing a very cinematic atmosphere to "Like Crazy" despite the film's modest means.

For the central pairing, Jones (a distinctly lovely actress with a remarkably subtle face and physical acting style) in particular brings a fascinating duality to her character of Anna: she can feel both warm and reserved, naive but very intelligent and observant. Jones slowly melds what could initially seem like a contradiction into a very real, imperfect human character that you can't quite understand but you can feel remarkably close to, and it's easy to see how someone could be very drawn to her. Anton Yelchin, as Jacob, has the much harder task: his Jacob has an almost too-passive interest in this love affair, but while the character on the page might be too much of a cipher, Yelchin has a clever acting style that suggests there's more to Jacob than meets the eye.

And there's no questioning that "Like Crazy" is a consistiently engaging and intriguing experience. There's just a big problem when the central romance in an in-and-out-of-love story is the weakest part of film. Their relationship ultimately feels completely tied to plot, with no real sense that it would exist off camera. We become interested in Jacob and Anna individually, but never as a couple.

Jacob seems rather unwilling to uproot his life to be with her, or even borrow money from her parents so he can stay the post-graduation summer in England, and it is a bit baffling to wonder how someone as smart (or supposedly smart) as Anna would be willing to overlook his slowly growing indifference and find out far too late that their romance is dying.

There's a bit of suspense later on, as both Jacob and Anna get romantically tempted by someone close to them (by Jennifer Lawerence and Charlie Bewley, respectively), but that plot devolpment ultimately feels as superficial and mechanical as the movie's main immigration predicament. It's more an affirtmation of Lawrence's considerable talents as an actress that she takes a role as contrived as this and ends up making the audience truly feel her heartbreak. Though it's a big problem when we're more torn up over the affair rather than the movie's main romance.

It's not that there isn't a sense of real care and affection between Jacob and Anna, but the movie just doesn't take enough time to let us figure out exactly what exists between the two. It seems like while Anna may be in crazy stupid love, Jacob seems to see it as a passionate summer fling but nothing to change his life for. You end up wishing they would just move on and live their lives rather than root for them to make it through their immigration-complicated struggle, as the feelings just do not seem to be reciprocated. The disintegration of their relationship feels more expected and, frankly, welcome than it is heartbreaking.

Perhaps what's hindering the central romance is that the movie is far too hurried and uneven that it doesn't really have time to show a substantive, organic growth of Anna and Jacob's relationship. The early scenes of Jacob and Anna's romance are far too brief (with an excessive fondness of montages and quick scene cuts) and far too much screen time is spent after Anna's banned from the US that "Crazy" never really has time to breathe. There's never any time to truly reveal what would make these two would-be romantics not only connect but fall passionately in love with each other. Surely it's more than a mutual love for Paul Simon's "Graceland" or rides in go-karts (yep, that's in the movie too).

Perhaps it's a compliment to say that the film should've been a bit longer, but it also means we're left needing more. The movie does have a potentially terrific ending, but too bad the charming but uncogent scenes before make it an afterthought rather than something more potent and emotional. That makes the whole experience just all the more tantalizing and disappointing. We haven't fallen in love with "Like Crazy", we're just enamored with what could've been.

A story of love, depending on what love really is

[napierslogs · 7/10 · 22 November 2011]

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.

the true reality of love stories

[pita_mariaulrich · 8/10 · 16 December 2012]

I was checking out the storyline when I just realized this movie was the story of my life...almost! But it surprised me very positively.

I was also married to an American citizen just out of College and had to follow the same process in order to be with him. Truth is, the bureaucratic aspect of it has done exactly the same to my relationship. The movie captures so so well the frustration, the disappointment, the fears of not knowing if you have what it takes to fight "like crazy" for each other;

The moment in the movie when she calls him and asks him to come over in 30m, breaks my heart! So real, so in despair.

So, not only because I can relate to the story, but because the acting is superb, so natural and because I believe the production & direction have accomplished what they were looking for with the movie, I give it great points.

The movie is a true mirror of youth, freshness and it's timeless, Like a Romeo & Julieta of contemporariness.

Long Distance Dance

[JohnDeSando · 16 November 2011]

"I thought I understood it. But I didn't. I knew the smudgeness of it. The eagerness of it. The Idea of it. Of you and me." Anna (Felicity Jones)

Like Crazy is about the craziness of love without a Hollywood spin but with a conventional story that tells it like love is: unadorned, raw, a puzzle, and a disappointment. Director Drake Doremus handed the outline to actors Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin and the rest was an organic script, albeit weaker than ones Brit director Mike Leigh develops with his cast.

Although the dialogue is spare and prosaic, the realism is spot on as the young couple struggles most of all with long distance. She is on visa from the UK to study in LA. He meets her at college; she overstays her visa time and is banned from returning to the US until a lengthy process of appeal is followed.

Those who have struggled with that distance demon know how right the artists get the frustrations and changes that plague those who challenge cupid across the pond over too long a time.

Although many traditional moviegoers will not like the ending, they can be comforted that it is, alas, only too true. If nothing else, Like Crazy is a textbook study of long distance love that should be a caution before young lovers attempt the navigation.

An Uneven Look at the Loneliness of the Long Distance Relationship

[EUyeshima · 6/10 · 6 November 2011]

There is a level of genuine intimacy generated by the two actors, Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin (Chekhov in the "Star Trek" reboot), playing the young lovers in this low-key, low-budget 2011 indie romantic drama directed and co-written by Drake Doremus. Apparently, he and co-scenarist Ben York Jones wrote a fifty-page outline for the movie and allowed the actors to flesh out the story by having them improvise most of their lines. The net result is a level of naturalness achieved in their performances that comes across without contrivance, no small feat given how predictable most love-at-first-sight movies can be. However, there is a nagging conventionality and a relative imbalance to the love story that makes the film fall short of its emotional objective with this viewer.

Yelchin and Jones play Jacob and Anna, senior-year college students in LA who fall in love shortly before the latter is to return to her native London. Naturally, there is a meet-cute set-up that leads to a hesitant first date that leads them headlong into unbridled romance. So smitten are they with each other that Anna overstays her student visa and doesn't return home on schedule. When she tries to return to LA, she is detained by immigration officials and forced to go home. What occurs is a long-distance relationship hampered by their separate burgeoning careers (she becomes a magazine writer/blogger, he a furniture designer), the fragility of love, and the fear of commitment. Their hopeless naiveté in a post-9/11 world is a plot device that forces each of them to decide what they are willing to do to invest in their relationship.

It is at this point that each seems to divert since Anna is willing to make all the hard choices whereas Jacob appears comparatively passive in his commitment. Perhaps it would have been excessive (and maybe a bit boring) to have both lovers follow their hearts in equal proportion, but the gap does undermine what would have made the relationship more compelling to witness beyond the standard romantic montages and overtures seen in like-minded films ("The Notebook", for example). While both lead actors are affecting and perceptive in their respective roles, the charismatic Jones has the advantage of playing a character that is far more transparent in her motivations. Yelchin is saddled with the more elliptical role where we are left to guess how far he is willing to commit.

Compelling in just a few scenes as Jacob's comely assistant Sam, Jennifer Lawrence ("Winter's Bone") is the inevitable temptation in his path, while Charlie Bewley makes less of an impression as Anna's neighbor Simon. Familiar TV actors Alex Kingston and Oliver Muirhead play Anna's supportive parents with measured gusto, while another familiar small-screen face, Finola Hughes ("General Hospital"), nicely plays Anna's boss. Framed by John Guleserian's hand-held digital camera-work, the film benefits from the incisive way Doremus staged several of the key scenes, especially the ones that highlight the intermittent disconnects between the lovers, and the young filmmaker shrewdly provides an ambiguous ending allowing viewers to fill in the blanks with the future of Jacob's and Anna's relationship. Nonetheless, the film just didn't leave an indelible impression on me.

Dull and unrewarding

[neil-476 · 6/10 · 1 February 2012]

Anna (Felicity Jones), a British journalism student in Los Angeles, falls for Jacob (Anton Yelchin), a student of furniture design, and he for her. In fact, so thoroughly do they fall for each other that she overstays her student visa so that she can stay with him through the summer. This causes her problems when she next attempts to re-enter the USA - the Immigration Service don't like people who break the rules. The fractured romance continues as they both try to stay in contact, stay faithful to each other, and get on with their lives, and not always successfully at any of this.

So this is another little real life drama, my second of the day (following The Descendants). And I badly wanted to like it: I like and am impressed by Felicity Jones, Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence, and Alex Kingston is no slouch, either. And, excitingly (at least for the actors), I understand that much of the film was improvised by the performers.

Perhaps that's the problem. Because, without going too deeply into it, this is an unsatisfying movie. Filmed in fly-on-the-wall style (ie. hand-held camera throughout), it annoyed me and bored me in equal measure. The improvised dialogue is, indeed, true to real life - mundane and ordinary, with no cleverness to it (albeit well acted, especially by Lawrence). And the story, such as it is, meanders tediously through the rather dull lives of these young people. The only interesting thing is their romance, and once the Atlantic Ocean separates them, that particular point of interest is gone. And when I factor in my irritation at their stupidity (overstaying the visa in the first place, not getting married straight away as the obvious solution to the problem), I spent the majority of the film frustrated at how poorly this film told this drab story about these two uncharismatic youngsters, and how incredibly long it took to tell it. Still, at least the payoff was worth it. Oh, wait - no, it wasn't.

A Heartfelt and Absorbing Love Story

[ryanizant-1 · 9/10 · 25 January 2011]

Just saw it at the Sundance Film Festival here in Park City, Utah.'Like Crazy' is a love story about the ups and the downs, the euphoria, the heartache, and the sacrifices. For those who don't know the plot, basically a British student, Anna, falls for Jacob, an American student. They fall for each other right away, and spend the summer together. However, she violates the stay of her student visa, and when she tries to return to L.A., she is denied. Thus, our two lovers are separated by distance and multiple levels of bureaucracy that prove to be most unfair. Can they make it work, and should they? Some have compared it to '500 Days of Summer,' and there are a few similarities. The major difference is the lack of any unique narrative devices and that it is, in fact, a love story. First and foremost, let me say that Felicity Jones as Anna is a revelation. She owns the screen and was utterly charming and devastatingly beautiful. There's a scene in the first 10 minutes after they spend their first evening together, and they sit on her bed, and a sense of tension but young awkwardness that fills the room. When the conversation falters out, she gives him a look that was filled with such delicate longing; fueled by the power of young love and the possibilities before them. It was in this moment that Anna, and Felicity, won me over. The chemistry between her and her co-star Anton was realistic and powerful. Much of the film was improvised; the director said he would often leave the camera rolling for twenty to thirty minutes at a time just to capture them together. It shows. I felt myself hoping and wishing for them to work it all out, to end up together.

The music is fantastic. It provides the heartbeat to the film and is a wonderful compliment. It's well edited - the film ultimately takes place over what seems to be a couple of years. Unlike early versions of the film, title cards have been removed and a series of jump cuts progresses the time. You have to pay close attention at times to have a firm grasp on the passage of time. There are moments when they are happy and together that are so iconic. Walking the streets of London, at times they looked like the cover of a Bob Dylan cover. Quick cuts of them together whether in LA or London are quite beautiful.

This film was obviously made based on real experiences, and the filmmakers admitted that it was the combination of many of their experiences. It's a realistic film. Things aren't easy. You will smile and laugh and other times feel just as much despair as our characters. There are no easy answers in this film, and your ultimate interpretation and perhaps enjoyment of the film depends on what you bring to the table, and your feelings on love, and just how much you believe in it. This film should make Felicity Jones a star in the way that 'An Education' benefited Carey Mulligan.

She is not a 'nut case'

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 20 November 2011]

Jacob and Anna meet in college. She is a British student in an unnamed Los Angeles college which Jacob is also attending, although his field is design. Anna likes Jacob; he appears to be a shy young man who will not take the first step to ask Anna out on a date. Never fear, Anna takes the first step in approaching him. She decides to leave a note she has written on his windshield hoping he will see it. Fortunately, Jacob likes what he reads and he takes an instant liking to the bold English girl with no hangups.

What follows is their romance. It blossoms because both are madly in love with one another. Since it is the end of the semester, Anna has planned to return to England, not even thinking she would be romantically involved with Jacob. Then, there is a problem with her student visa; she must return to her country when it expires at the end of the college term. Anna, without thinking much about the complications, decides to overstay so she can spend time with her new American boyfriend.

Unfortunately, Anna finds out in the worst way she will not get a new visa to come back to Los Angeles. Jacob, who has started his design project, must go to see her in London. The only solution is to get married and apply for a different kind of visa, but Anna's mistake in violating the terms of the visa, becomes the victim of her own doing when the American consulate reject her application.

The long distance between the lovers conspires to strain their relationship. Jacob finds solace with his lovely assistant, Sam, who clearly loves him. Anna, back in London, meets Simon, a young man that appears to adore her, but knowing full well the situation she is dealing with. After overcoming many obstacles, Jacob and Anna are reunited, but it is a bittersweet reunion. Has everything changed in the way they felt about one another? Do both lovers have regrets now they are together. Such is the ambiguous ending in this new project by director Drake Doremus.

"Like Crazy" is not your typical Hollywood young romance picture where everything gets resolved like by magic. Mr. Doremus and his co- screenplay writer, Ben York Jones, do not go for easy solutions. In fact, we are lead to believe the romance of Jacob and Anna, so real and so intense, kind of got sidetracked because of the obstacles that came unexpectedly along the way. In many ways, this film makes more sense than in movies of this genre that are sugar coated so that viewers get a good feeling coming out of the theater. Mr. Doremus is more interested in leaving the audience wondering whether the couple will make it, or not.

What the director got was great acting from his two principals. Felicity Jones is clearly a promising actress quite at home in the theater, or in films, or any other media. She is a fresh face that is easy to like in whatever she gets involved. Anton Yelchin, on the other hand, has grown up right in front of our eyes and now is a young actor that delivers in every new appearance. The wonderful Jennifer Lawrence, makes an impressive Sam in her limited time on screen. Same goes for Charley Bewley's Simon.

John Guleserian, the cinematographer, does wonders with his camera. He enhances the production with his work. Dustin O'Halloran contributed the music score. Drake Doremus gives us a more realistic story that in other hands would have turned to mush.

Emotionally devastating, yet equally just as deeply romantic

[DonFishies · 9/10 · 3 October 2011]

I am still trying to play catch up with my reviews from this year's past Toronto International Film Festival, but have found myself at a total loss for words when I try to write out my thoughts on Like Crazy. It was a movie I was excited to see ever since I heard the buzz at Sundance, and one I had high hopes for. Sure enough, I was left reeling after my screening, choking back the desire to weep for Jacob (Anton Yelchin) and Anna (Felicity Jones), a couple so deeply and madly in love who are held back from being together because of immigration laws. It is one of the most emotional experiences I have had at the movies in ages, and one that is not bound to leave me any time soon.

Like Crazy is a bit unconventional when compared to other romantic dramas. Instead of seeing the whole story of Jacob and Anna's romance from the beginning, co-writer/director Drake Doremus only gives us moments, glimpses and mere blips along the way. He frames it in a nostalgic sense, as if the pair is reminiscing about their favourite or most important memories years later. We are not privy to their most personal moments like their first kiss or their first sexual encounter. But we are allowed to see how they lived their lives together, how they live them apart, and how they intersect and meet up with each other over a five year period. Doremus never gives us the full picture of what has and has not happened; he merely offers only fragments of these characters' lives. And at just under 90-minutes, there are only so many fragments that can be offered. This may infuriate some viewers, but it provides for a captivating experience that feels more authentic and genuine than most romances that have come before it.

What is also unique is how Doremus films this heartbreaking romance. He uses many intimate and candid close-ups to help convey the joy and anguish in our couple's faces. He never shies away from allowing Yelchin and Jones to reveal their emotions, hovering uncomfortably on their tear soaked faces more often than you may imagine. He also employs the use of the shaky cam style of filmmaking, effectively furthering the notion of the film being told from a nostalgic point-of-view. In some sense, it almost looks as if someone is trying to keep up and capture these moments as they happen. It borders on resembling cinéma vérité, but not quite as pronounced or blatant. Doremus maintains a dreamlike, hazy quality to the earlier scenes, and then brings in a grittier, starker tone to the later scenes. It makes for an interesting viewing experience, because as the actions are toying with your emotions, so too is the look and appearance of the film.

Yelchin and Jones are simply above and beyond fantastic in their roles. While Yelchin proves he is a talent to continue to watch, Jones is quite simply a breakthrough. Together or apart, both actors breathe life into their characters, allowing them a depth that transcends everything Doremus allows the audience to see. We only get hints at things, but their performances make us feel like we know everything there is to know about them. These characters are very lived in, and feel incredibly natural and real from the moment Anna walks into Jacob's life, until the end credits roll. You feel their every pain, their every heartache, their every joy and their every sorrow. Their chemistry practically smoulders on-screen, making their devastating romance that much harder to take in. By the end of the film, you feel like you really know this couple on a level where they could actually exist. The power and strength of both of their performances is simply unfathomable and is something that cannot be easily replicated.

Supporting turns from Alex Kingston and Oliver Muirhead as Anna's parents, Charlie Bewley and an especially low-key Jennifer Lawrence are all very well done. I will not reveal how Bewley and Lawrence factor into the story, but suffice to say, they help pull some incredibly emotional gut punches along the way. None of these characters are particularly well developed, but then, the film's pacing and structure never affords them any chance for an immense amount of depth. But it does give them the chance to shine in a few brief moments, as well as work off of Yelchin and Jones increasingly well. Both actors easily overshadow everyone they appear beside at all times, but nonetheless, these supporting players help maintain the realism the film strives for, and help even further to move the film ahead through some of its more twisty scenes.

I keep struggling to come up with more words and ideas to further describe how exceptional Like Crazy is, but there are not enough phrases to truly explain it. It is quite simply, the kind of emotionally resonant film that does not comes around nearly enough. Anyone who has ever been in love or who has suffered the unbearable pain of heartbreak will find a bit of themselves in these characters. The indie nature of the film may steer viewers away, but it only helps to preserve the story and the tone. While it can be incredibly devastating to watch, Like Crazy is equally just as deeply romantic. You may need to find time to prepare yourself before you watch it, but you will not regret the decision.

9/10.

Another lazy ending

[jasonmilesinc · 6/10 · 9 May 2022]

Not fair to put an audience through all that and then muddy the ending. Not fair to the characters. This film deserved a strong ending and so did the characters. Extremely lazy and disappointing.

Like, okay....

[sunshine_love_27 · 5/10 · 24 June 2012]

I was immediately intrigued by the previews of this film, though sadly there was no one sappy enough to drag with me, so I had to wait for Netflix.

I've seen this film twice now, and it has left me so..... not anything.

I wanted to love this film. I wanted to "be totally amazed and cry every single time I saw it because I was going to watch it everyday" love this film. But I couldn't.

I think in the end, I couldn't buy into the idea that Anna and Jacob were madly in love before they got separated. Anna was in love, sure. But Jacob? Maybe he's just reserved, but it never seemed like he was really all the way into it. And without that, the whole premise of the movie fails. He seems to really be into his next girlfriend, Sam, perhaps even more so than Anna, and so we never understand why he can't let go of Anna, because he never seemed invested in the first place.

The movie really sank or swam with Jacob. I don't know if it was the actor, who otherwise delivers a great performance, or the "script", but he was so very enigmatic that none of the rest of the movie made any sense. I never felt sold on his love for Anna, I just felt like I was willing to assume he did because Anna loved him so much. And there were definitely actions he took later on to show his love, but it seemed more of a plot twist than genuine love.

It's been said, and should be said again, that the performances were excellent. This was a first-rate cast who all have bright futures ahead of them. But without feeling committed to these two from the beginning, the rest of the movie is just, well, kind of pointless.

The film was shot showing snippets of characters' interactions with each other - Anna & Jacob with each other, each with their respective later loves - which was an interesting style and genuinely effective later on, but I think we needed to be hit over the head with Anna & Jacob at the beginning, instead of just a few cutesy scenes. But as is, you're left feeling like you can't root for these two if you don't know why you care about them (as a couple) in the first place. And that, while maybe the only flaw of the movie, was still fatal to my love for it.

A freshly brilliant take on young love

[adams137 · 9/10 · 29 September 2011]

Don't let it's indie roots fool you. Like Crazy is a nostalgic love story of people who know what they want but don't know how to get it.

The acting is superb. Yelchin and Jones have chemistry and they play it across the board. You will smile, laugh, cry, and hold your breath as these two characters waltz in and out of each others' lives. Jennifer Lawrence and Charlie Bewley also deliver great performances.

The thing that sets Like Crazy apart is the fact that it doesn't try to be anything than an honest love story. It doesn't play up stereotypes. It doesn't beat out the indie clichés. The dialogue is naturally paced and feels richly authentic. The subtext is dramatic.

This film is worth every dollar and dime in my mind. If you get the chance, go see it. Take friends who want to share the fun of a good film.

Like Crazy is a fantastic watch and a fresh take on everything you thought you knew about indie romance.

like...almost

[jharrisonplease · 6/10 · 19 June 2012]

I love the premise. I love the actors. I love that it's low budget and obviously improvised. I even love the style. But at its heart there's something missing, something false, about the way it comes together. This is the Monkees to "Blue Valentine"'s Beatles. It's a kind of faux verite film that lacks the punch and grit and...well, genuine-ness that the genre demands. Even with all that said I have high hopes for the future of Felicity Jones, who steals every scene and proves herself a HUGE talent to be watched. She's gorgeous and sincere and almost saves the scenes that are just too over-dramatic and contrived to ring true. So overall there's a lot to like here...but it's just a little too plastic for its own good.

A lukewarm reaction.

[Rockwell_Cronenberg · 5/10 · 14 November 2011]

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.

Drecks and the Single Girl

[originalthinkr-2 · 28 October 2011]

If this film were merely an aberration, I wouldn't care very much about the ninety minutes wasted by sitting through it, but it is, unfortunately, becoming the norm for modern film-going when practically NO ONE seems to know how to fashion and tell a proper story.

More and more there seem to be those who get the notion in their heads that they have a story to tell, when they actually have NO story, the end result being that those with the misfortune to sit through their eventual handiwork have to pay for their delusions.

"Like Crazy" (the title should apply to its makers' above delusions) is a bland, shapeless, pointless excuse for a movie. It betrays an utter lack of understanding of dramatic construction and a director so concerned with film-ic "technique" (however he defines it) that is, in fact, so inartful and overbearingly designed to display what a genius he is, that he ignores even the most rudimentary demands of story-telling.

He is no director of actors; if he were, he would have seen from the outset that his cast is utterly unbalanced and mismatched. Brit Anna (Felicity Jones) -- articulate and expressive -- seems as though she's forty, while her paramour, Jacob (Anton Yelchin) seems as though he's twelve, so devoid is he of any discernible personality -- six cubic feet of empty space.

Jones probably has a career ahead of her, if she can find better material and directors who can wipe the memory of this vapid exercise from its unfortunate viewers, while Yelchin has none -- if we're lucky.

The film's chronology is muddled, rendering the normal dramatic mechanism of cause-and-effect inoperable and the characters' motivations (if any) inscrutable. Nothing actually happens in the film for the first thirty minutes of its running time. When an event of consequence -- the denial of Anna's visa to re-enter the U.S. -- nothing much else happens for the balance of the movie, which is broken up by numerous, wordless and gag-inducing interludes of the young lovers' romantic interludes that hark back to the worst excesses of the late 1960s and early '70s when such slow-motion sequences were de rigeur fashionable cinematic expression.

In short, this film as as ghastly a piece of inept, self-indulgent dreck as this reviewer has ever had the misfortune to sit through (and I got to see it for free. A note to its makers: Please don't do me any more favors).

IMDb allows reviewers to a numerical value on a scale of one to ten; the only conceivable injustice greater than having to sit through this movie is that there is no rating of "zero."

A sincere film that ultimately comes up empty

[howard.schumann · 7/10 · 9 October 2011]

No theme in drama touches the heart more than the separation of lovers. In classic dramas from Romeo and Juliet to Wuthering Heights, we empathize with the feelings of sadness and loss that estrangement brings and can relate them to our own experience. Some stories of separation, however, lack deeply-drawn characters and do not have the same emotional impact. Such is the case with Drake Doremus' Like Crazy, the story of a young couple having to engage in a long-distance relationship as a result of the violation of immigration requirements. It is a sincere film from the director's own experience, but one that ultimately comes up empty.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Drama at the Sundance Film Festival, Anna (Felicity Jones), a British exchange student at a Los Angeles college meets Jacob (Anton Yelchin), a Furniture Design major who is a Teaching Assistant in Anna's writing class. After she places a love note on his windshield after class, the two begin a whirlwind relationship that develops so fast that before we can swallow our pop corn and think of how we met our first love, they are way ahead of us, already pledging their undying love.

While the two young lovers are immensely appealing, we witness no genuine development of their relationship, only derivative montages showing them at an amusement park, playing in the sand, kissing under a full moon, and, of course, running along a beach. The dialogue is mostly improvised to promote "realism", but the lovers are not well defined and come across as seemingly without interest in anything outside of themselves (other than Paul Simon). We see the physical passion on the screen but it never feels authentic, more like movie-love, determined to call attention to itself with a series of time-lapse snapshots and other cinematic gimmicks.

The main thrust of the story is the separation of Anna and Jacob brought about by the U.S. Immigration authorities. Originally planning to go home for the summer, Anna decides to stay with Jacob for a few months, unaware of or not caring about the fact that she is overstaying her student visa limitation. When she does go home for a brief visit to attend a wedding, on her return she comes up against immigration regulations designed to weed out terrorists and other undesirables. The Immigration Officer (Iris Taylor Cameron) emphatically makes Anna aware of her transgressions and forbids her to re-enter the U.S.

Though most people struggle to gain a rung on the economic ladder after leaving school, both Anna and Jacob have become successes in their professions only one year after graduation, Anna writing for a magazine on her way to being made a junior editor, and Jacob running a successful furniture business. After several back and forth visits between London and Los Angeles, they break-up, then reconcile before they are again driven apart once again by disagreements. Distracted by their work and their enforced separation, they never seem to recapture the energy of their first experience and are drawn into other relationships, Jacob with Sam (Jennifer Lawrence) and Anna with Simon (Charlie Bewley), but neither relationship is fully satisfying and there is little truth-telling.

Despite a thin script, it is hard to deny the quality of the performances by Jones and Yelchin, and those of Anne's parents (Alex Kingston and Oliver Muirhead) who give the film a much needed lightness of tone. In some respect, Like Crazy shows the sad plight of immature young people drawn into situations that are not of their own making. Yet to me, the characters are defined, not as victims of overbearing forces that are determined to keep them apart, but by their own absence of responsibility, commitment, and integrity, values that may seem old-fashioned but are an important part of the new story that is in the process of re-envisioning society.

Like Crazy Did Not Drive Me Nuts, But I Like Nuts

[Unbilled_Role · 7/10 · 1 October 2011]

"Like Crazy" starts out strongly. Fresh young love, imbibed with an earthy, quiet spontaneity. The 2 leads actors have a playful, heartfelt energy between them. Yelchin (Jacob) and Jones (Anna) were finely cast, as were Alex Kingston and Oliver Muirhead, as the parents of Anna. Several scenes were familiar territory to me, even offering a few gentle reminders about the fragile nature of romantic dreams.

Kudos to the production design and costuming people, who were willing to let the actors shine. The scenes were rendered with comforting modernity, without trying too hard. It's refreshing to see a creative team who are not compelled to be edgy or trendy.

The push-pull dynamic of long-distance relationships is revealed quite well in this story. Having said that, the core energy and rhythm seemed to dissipate after a while, and I felt like the movie lost its bearings. This film could have benefited from a tighter edit. In a way, the director may have intended for the audience to feel a bit haggard at various points. The romantic part of me wanted some reassuring escapism in the final scene. Instead, we are left to grapple with the evidence of awkwardness, which some of us are all too familiar with.

Like Beautiful

[fattyfilm · 9/10 · 30 January 2011]

This film was beautiful. I saw it at the Sundance Film Festival and fell in love with it Like Crazy. Everything from the acting, to the cinematography, to the story line was amazing. And to think it was shot on the Canon 7D is incredible. I saw 14 films at Sundance and this was my favorite film in the festival. During the Q&A after the film the director made it clear that this film is about the true story of his own relationship with a girl. I would recommend this film to people who have experienced a long distant relationship and to teenage/young adult audiences. This film is the Winner of the U.S. Dramatic Competition Grand Jury Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. I think it deserved this prize. This film made me feel all sorts of different emotions. This film really is a beautiful story and I am excited to see it coming out in theaters.

In a sentence- The love story is not believable.

[annliebe · 6/10 · 21 November 2011]

"Like Crazy" is a romantic drama directed and co-written by Drake Doremus. Starring Anton Yelchin, emerging actress Felicity Jones, and Jennifer Lawrence. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for best film at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

No question Doremus has a lot of talent, he is a great young director and it shows it with the great cinematography in this film. Throughout, the performances are good and natural.

The love story was inspired by events of Doremus's real life. Unfortunately is far from been one of the greatest love story of all time. It fails to deliver "emotion" at all levels, which is one of the most essential components in a love story. I didn't really feel the chemistry between the two main characters failing to portrait that passionate connection they supposedly have in the film.

How far will you go?

[djp2000 · 9/10 · 23 October 2011]

It's so refreshing to see that really good movies can still be made once in a while. The Philadelphia Film Festival began this past week and chose a great movie to open with: Like Crazy. It won the Grand Jury Prize for best film at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, and deservedly so. It stars Anton Yelchin, one of those names you may not know but whose face you've probably seen before. He plays Jacob. The other star of the film is Felicity Jones, who won't have as recognizable of a face as she has mainly made movies only in England. She plays Anna. Jacob and Anna meet early in the film while attending the same college. There's an immediate attraction and they instantly hit it off. It's not long before we see how madly in love they fall for each other. It's the kind of love that most people only see in movies and never get to experience for themselves. In fact, they seem so in love and happy together at such an early stage of the film that you wonder where the movie is going from there. Well of course nothing's ever as perfect as it seems, and a big hurdle comes along that stands in their way of complete happiness. Anna is not an American citizen after all. She was attending college in the U.S. but still lives in England. So when she overstays her visa, she finds herself banned from the country. Why did she overstay her welcome? She did it to be with Jacob, of course. When someone is truly in love, they will often do anything they can to be with that person; but they sometimes forget about the consequences of those actions. At this point, the two lovebirds must decide on whether to maintain the new long distance relationship. It's not just any long distance relationship of course, it's an overseas relationship. That's a situation which is pretty tough for just about any couple to pull off. So the movie then shifts its tone to one of compromise and struggle. How much can one person sacrifice for the other? Can they somehow lift the ban, or will Jacob have to move to England thus leaving his current job in the U.S.? Is it all even worth it after it's all said and done? Many questions arise, not to mention the possibility of finding new love in their own respectable countries with someone else. It's a great film dealing with human emotions and how far we will go for another person. The two actors pour their hearts out on screen and it can be mesmerizing at times. Like Crazy opens nationwide on October 28. It's an independent film though so it will surely be shown in limited release, but find it if you can.

The danger of trying hard to be ordinary

[secondtake · 6/10 · 19 February 2013]

Like Crazy (2011)

A sweet, troubled love story. The troubles come from both the young couple who have to keep their idealized love alive after the woman has to move from L.A. to England because of visa issues. Once the couple is apart they try to find ways of keeping things alive, or keeping things open minded in the meanwhile. Tensions and misunderstandings of course become the meat of the movie, and in ways that are very simple and believable.

I think the goal was to keep the relationship as "normal" as possible even if the situation was slightly unusual. This has two effects. One is it makes you think it's an insightful look at ourselves, or what could be ourselves in a similar spot. The other is that it's a little self-deflating. The whole situation is so ordinary, even though well done ordinary, you don't fully get swept away or rapt.

There are slice of life movies that are about ordinary life that are more successful partly because the slice of life is more interesting to start with. There is more here in the way, however, including some writing that wanes when you need a sparkle or an epiphany. (Even ordinary people have epiphanies.) And the editing or pacing of things lacks what you might just call artfulness--a handling of the unfolding to be more absorbing and emphatic. (Hard to critique editing in a sentence but if you notice you might agree.)

In the end it's not a bad movie--there's nothing "bad" about it. In fact it's charming on the surface. That it doesn't do more might be because it didn't want to. And so we have what we have.

Oh, no not this one!

[Roxy100 · 1/10 · 16 June 2014]

Please don't believe those reviews with 7,8,9,10 stars or whatever. This movie is crap! One of the most unrealistic movies ever produced seriously lacking passion or spark that is so common in young love. Jacob and Anna quite smartly show the dumbest lifeless love affair on screen. They meet in a college in US but girl loses her visa rights due to overstay. But she gets him to London often and soon they get married! Funny thing is they start cheating each other right away like just next month, initiating their own illicit affairs with their neighbors and employees. And Anna's cheating goes on to such a wild rampage that she invites her parents to dinners with her illicit lover Simon, only to get proposed by him! What a dumb man, not to know the man he met at Anna's apartment was her own husband?? And parents go home at the end of the dinner only with a confused look – I mean don't they even question this girl what the heck is going on or just tell the man that she is already married? Wait a minute….the stupid naivety does not end there. Anna suddenly gets her visa out of the blue and soon chucks away the promotion she just got and flies to US to reunite with her husband. Guess what? The moment the two are in Jacob's house, they both looks the unhappiest man and woman on earth!! I nearly ended up going nuts watching this movie so please beware!!

A relatable love story

[blue-bukkit · 10/10 · 3 August 2011]

"Like Crazy" was my favorite movie at the Sundance Film Festival this year. It is a love story that I think many people can relate to. (I LOVE Arthur Hiller's "Love Story" and can relate to much of it, although most relationships don't end so tragically.)

I'm guessing that many of the people that didn't enjoy "Like Crazy" never experienced the beauty of young love, or the heartache it causes when you're forced into a long distance relationship. Or maybe they didn't like it because they only enjoy movies with cars exploding and lots of automatic gunfire. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but at least fess up in your reviews and say you'd rather be watching an action flick.

If you're not in the above categories, I recommend watching this film with your significant other. All of the actors are a delight to watch; they are natural and absolutely in the moment - no forced acting whatsoever. According to the director, they had a very limited script, basically just situations for each scene; so they used intuition with their characters and the dialogue. It's been a long time since I've seen a film with such real chemistry between characters, but this one has it.

Blue Valentine-lite

[baddancer · 7/10 · 23 January 2012]

Saw 'Like Crazy' yesterday. It's hard not to like: the characters are sweet and believable; the actors seem to be relishing the improv nature of the film; the story feels true (which it is, apparently, kinda); the photography, direction and editing are all executed brilliantly; and, most importantly, it's engaging, fun and emotionally affecting. My only issue with it is that it's the plot of 'Going The Distance' filmed in exactly the same way as 'Blue Valentine' - photographically and stylistically, with a view to creating the same 'real' and raw emotion. And it's the latter film comparison that grates. I was so struck by the similarity that I did a little research on the director, Drake Doremus, and it turns out that he shot this film after submitting his last film ('Douchebag') to Sundance in 2010 and deciding he wanted to do something more 'from the heart'. 'Blue Valentine' was also at that festival. Derek Cianfrance took 15 years to bring his film to completion and it was an original and exciting concept that was raw and honest. Doremus knocked his teen-copy out in a year for a fraction of the budget. Good for him. But bad for art? '500 Days Of Summer' was a good movie. But I guess you could argue that it was 'Eternal Sunshine' for teens. And adult stories, such as Dangerous Liasons -remade as Cruel Intentions- have been repackaged and rejuvenated for teenagers, so I s'pose it's nothing new. It's just a shame that when something is popular, interesting, original or even unique, the bandwagon starts up and is, usually -and ultimately- driven by studios and corporations. For every Amy Winehouse, there's 5 Duffys (Duffies?), 2 Paloma Faiths and a dozen one-hit-wonders who I can no longer remember. 'Like Crazy' is more of a Paloma Faith - meaning it's good in its own right. Really good. But I can't help feeling that, not only is it Blue Valentine for teens, but it's Blue Valentine-lite ... which is a far more damning criticism.

Not enough depth or passion to sustain the relationship. Spoiler alert.

[annettemroper · 3/10 · 22 August 2014]

This film has been on my 'to watch list' for awhile. It got good reviews so I had high hopes but unfortunately it fell short of my expectations.

Ultimately, I don't buy what the movie is trying to sell. The director would have the viewer believe that Anna and Jacob have a love so deep that it will survive the myriad of disappointments and dramas accrued in the months and years they spend apart. I don't think so.

Jacob was like a deer caught in the headlights by this girl stalking/pursuing him (how did she know what car to place the note on?) and like a guy, he went for it but was never really committed to the relationship. If he was, he would have done anything to keep her there like get married in Vegas or at the very least, accompany her to England before her visa expired and stay with her until they could both return to the states. He didn't even try to convince her that overstaying her visa was a bad idea that could jeopardize their future. Apart from a couple of trips Jacob made to England, he basically did nothing to keep the relationship afloat and she did everything. When the immigration mess was finally sorted, Anna was not exactly overjoyed so I was surprised she went back to the states at all. I just figured she would keep it to herself and get on with her life. In the end when she exits the shower with Jacob looking on, the viewer is allowed to draw their own conclusions about what might have happened. I believe she got dressed and went back to the airport.

Ultimately, this flick is kind of a dud. The acting is adequate however. Just not good enough to convince me that either wanted the relationship to survive.