Like Crazy

Call me heartless if you will, but by the end of Like Crazy I just wanted these two to hurry up and get over each other. Maybe it’s because I never felt their central bond to be all that strong, or maybe it had something to do with the music video style imagery of quick edits meant to symbolize passing time and sunlit beach strolls. Either way, I never got why these two just couldn’t let their relationship go.

They meet-cute in a college class, she’s a British exchange student and he’s an American studying furniture design. They’re both attractive, bright people who we hope will succeed in their futures. But their romance lasts only a short time before complications ensue to pull them apart. She overstayed her student visa and now can’t reenter the country. They try to visit and talk to each other when they can, but life keeps interrupting. Yet the script insists that they belong together, so it bends and contorts to try and make them function and work together. Their romance seems more winsome and idealistic, and since they’re kept apart for so much of the film it’s hard to see what’s wrong with new love interests played by Jennifer Lawrence and Charlie Bewley.

Like Crazy does have two solid leads in Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones. Jones in particular is the real revelation in this film. The two of them manage to make a few segments exude some form of genuine emotion and feeling. A late night phone call which sees the two of them trying to convince each other that everything is fine, and will remain that way, is tender and pulls at the heart. But Like Crazy never bothers to give us a reason to care about this duo, and only half of it seems truly interested or invested in the romance and its outcome. A film like this requires a believable romance at the center to make us go along with it, but this one never provides it. What it does provide is a case that Jones is a great talent just waiting for a better vehicle to come along and launch her into bigger, better things. Like Crazy is handsomely made and nicely acted, but is curiously wooden.