Music, Style & Culture

LFF 2011: Like Crazy

A heady, dreamily-shot and intimate romance between two attractive but empty characters.

This lightweight romantic drama from Drake Doremus is saved by two charismatic lead performers, who bring life to shallow characters.

Felicity Jones, who made a big impression in underrated romcom Chalet Girl earlier this year, proves why she's the most exciting British talent to emerge since Keira Knightley. With US press falling head over heels for the hard-working 27-year-old since the film premiered at Sundance, we hope she has more career longevity than the last English rose to wow Hollywood, Gemma Arterton. Jones plays Anna, who outstays her student visa after falling in love with classmate Jacob (the immensely likeable Anton Yelchin, having a busy year with The Beaver and Fright Night).

Despite Jones and Yelchin's pleasing and affectionate physical chemistry, it's a struggle to see anything deeper into this relationship than puppy love. The lovesick pair present disgustingly twee gifts and soppy prose to each other in a series of montages, before Anna returns to the UK for a family wedding. On her return she is denied entry to the US for the visa violation, and promptly deported. The pair then struggle to keep their relationship alive while on separate continents, before making several life-changing decisions over a number of years.

Like Crazy suffers from building scenarios incredibly removed from reality. The two graduates immediately land dream jobs - Anna is promoted to assistant editor of a magazine in a matter of months, and young Jacob sets up a furniture design company so successful his moving to the UK is not an option. Even Bridget Jones had to slum it... Anna's middle class parents are like something from a Richard Curtis film, but Alex Kingston and Oliver Muirhead play them with great humour and warmth, despite judging boyfriends by their taste in expensive whiskey.

Thankfully, despite playing characters that are only defined by their jobs and love lives, Jones and Yelchin create an emotional urgency that carries the film. When they agree to see other people, Jacob's affair with his assistant (Jennifer Lawrence) is heartbreakingly sad, but Anna's relationship with neighbour Charlie Bewley feels shallow, and reveals an unsympathetic side to both Anna and Jacob, who can't break their bond.

Like Crazy is a heady, dreamily-shot and intimate romance between two attractive but empty characters. Those whose emotional age is over 21 will find plenty to scoff at, but it doesn't stop it being any less compelling, or at times, moving.

Rating: 6/10