Review No.6: Like Crazy

It is hard to make a believable romantic drama these days especially with two established film stars trying to make the audience believe that they are in love and are truly a couple. And I think that is where the next film on my list, Like Crazy, succeeds as its two leads Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones don't look like film stars and are believable in their roles. Yelchin's Jacob and Jones' Anna first meet at university in L.A. and in the first scene you see their eyes meet and soon they are dating after Anna leaves a note on Jacob's car. Through a series of montages we see the intensity of their love as Jacob, a furniture designer, makes her a chair and so when they are to be separated due to the expiration of her student visa they decide that she should ignore this and stay in the country without a visa. This decision is one that comes back to haunt them as Anna is denied entry back into America and when the two try a long distance relationship it doesn't survive. The film then follows them through a number of years as they try to fight Anna's ban to re-enter America and they both fall into other more convenient but less fulfilling relationships. However the two leads convey the fact that they belong together throughout the film leaving the audience in no doubt of the conclusion.

As I said at the start of this review Yelchin and Jones' chemistry is what makes this film and the script rightly has them on screen together for the most part of the opening twenty minutes. Lots of the time there is no dialogue accompanying theses scenes and that's one of the beauties of this film however I do feel there is an over abundance of montage sequences. Director and co-writer Drake Doremus really makes us feel the significance of this relationship and the strength of it so much so that when the couple separate you are willing them to get back together. There is also some brilliant dialogue in Like Crazy especially in the opening stages of the relationship with the stilted conversation that comes between two people who don't really know each other and trying to assess if they want to spend more time together. There are also some beautiful shots here and a lot that linger on the facial expressions of Jacob and Anna as they react to their various situations as well as capturing the beauty of some of the settings that the film takes the pair too. One of my only criticisms is the waste of the brilliant Jennifer Lawrence who plays Jacob's temporary love interest Sam while she tries her best in the role she is presented as nothing more than a distraction and I feel that an actress who is less well known would've been more fitting for this part. Like Crazy can be most compared to Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise and Before Sunset films as they both follow a relationship between two real people over several years and this manages to capture the ups and downs of a relationship hampered by a transatlantic barrier but one that ultimately will stand the test of time.

Verdict: A believable romantic film that doesn't outstay its welcomes and makes the most of its two talented leads I have to say this is the best film I have seen so far so it gets 8/10