Like Crazy (2011)

Writing this review right after writing my review of The Notebook, it feels like I’m working on two different sections of the romantic drama spectrum. Because where The Notebook feels like a story of how romance is supposed to work out, and it has a very sweet look at the perfect American love story. Like Crazy works a little bit differently as a film. Because where The Notebook is a story about love conquering all, Like Crazy is a story about how love actually works in the modern world. The Sundance Film Festival awarded this film the Grand Jury Prize the year it was in, and despite the fact that I’m pretty sure this was the year the fabulous Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil was at the Festival, I’m still very much behind this decision.

Starring Anton Yelchin (someone who I am 100% sure is going to be an A-list actor in a few years’ time if he still is doing wonderful films) and Felicity Jones (whose acting ability is as wonderful in this film, but this is the first thing I’ve seen her in, so it’s still up for grabs), Like Crazy is the tale of Anna and Jacob, two people who meet in college. Anna is a British exchange student, and as she falls in love with Jacob, she decides to overstay her visa so she can spend the summer with him. But when she goes back to Britain for a family engagement, she is banned from re-entering the US for overstaying her previous visa. But with her being gone, their relationship is heavily strained, to the point where they both agree to take up separate romantic relationships, Anna’s with a fellow Britain (?) named Simon (Charlie Bewley) and Jacob’s with one of his co-workers named Sam (Jennifer Lawrence, who is wonderful in this film for five minutes. And also, with her being in two different movies in the same year where she is romantically paired up with Anton Yelchin here and the magnificent The Beaver, the two of them have to be pretty darn good friends at this point). But with later insane complications, involving them having to break it off with their respective significant others and them being forced into a marriage, the entire film just sees two people trying desperately to have their The Notebook and just keep failing.

In the end, even though it does have some script failings (which Jones said the entire thing was improvised…I call bull. This movie was too well-made to be improvised), the movie just feels so painfully real. And that is what I really love about this movie, is how real it feels. It doesn’t feel artificial (most of the time), it just feels real. The two leads work wonders together, and it’s movies like this that give hopeful one-day filmmakers like me the hope that we live on. So kudos, Like Crazy. Kudos.
8.5/10