Like Crazy

     What Drake Doremus was able to craft with this film is something so real and visceral, and one of the most beautifully tragic takes at love I have ever witnessed. Felicity Jones and the late Anton Yelchin were the perfect people to cast in the two primary roles as their chemistry immediately jumps off the screen and is undeniable. They deliver their lines flawlessly, and it helps that they had a great screenplay to work with. Be warned though if you plan on watching this film. It is not your typical fun, happy, dreamy romance film. This film will force you to look at love, and long-distance relationships in a realistic, and perhaps tragic light. What you will find in this film, though, is passion and visceral emotion, and that is sometimes needed to remind you that not every relationship is perfect, but that does not mean that it is not worth fighting for.

            This film starts with Felicity Jones’ character Anna Gardner, a British exchange student attending college in Los Angeles where she falls in love with Anton Yelchin’s character, Jacob Helm. Through some circumstances, Anna is forced to stay in the United Kingdom and thus her and Jacob must continue their relationship long-distance. What happens from there is a realistic and painful look of what some people must endure when they engage in such relationships. You see everything in this film. The struggle, the fights, the love, the longing, and the desperation. That is what I love so much about this film. It does not hold back. You become so attached to these characters that you start to take their journey with them, so when they begin to feel the pain of the relationship, you feel it with them. That is a difficult thing to accomplish. It is not easy to get the audience to empathize with the characters, but this pulls it off because of a combination of the score, the cinematography, and of course the performances of Jones and Yelchin. The screenplay also plays a big part in this, not so much for what is written, but more so for what is not written. This film is not overly reliant on the script. It knows how to utilize silence effectively and forces the audience to just be in the moment and feel the emotions flooding the scene. This film also features Jennifer Lawrence in one of her earlier roles, so it also has that going for it. For those who are not fans of her, though, fear not, she is not in the film that often or that much.

            I do not have really any flaws to mention with this film. What it sets out to do, it does it affectively. If I had to nitpick at it, I would say that it is a bit dull and slow at times. Overall, the pace is set really well, but it does feel like it stalls at times. Another thing would be that it is not a film for everyone. If you are looking for something fun and full of the typical cliché romance scenes, you will be disappointed with this. If you are looking for something to make you feel some deep emotions and possibly make you question love and the idea of soulmates, well this might be the film for you. This film forces you to look at love through a pessimistic but realistic lens. Official Rating: 4.5 Stars.

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