Like Crazy Review

• 29th Jan 2012

Like Crazy is very much a romantic comedy of our times. It revolves around a young couple at university called Jacob and Anna. The film opens with Anna giving a student presentation in front of her class. Anna is a British student studying abroad at university in California where she meets and falls in love with shy American co-student Jacob right at the end of her time at university. Anna remains in the USA throughout the summer and falls more and more crazy in love with Jacob. Toward the end of the termination of her student visa Anna makes the rash decision of staying on in the States and overstaying her visa – a very rash decision indeed, despite the protestations of her mildly eccentric middle-England parents who had been out to visit her and her boyfriend. Before she leaves Jacob gives Anna a bracelet that has the word ‘patience’ engraved into it. Anna eventually returns back to the UK and her relationship with Jacob carries on through text, emails and late night phone calls, both missing each other very much. When she decides to travel back Stateside to visit Jacob who rushes to the airport to meet her she is stopped by the US immigration department who immediately deport her as she had previously outstayed her welcome. This scene is handled with some calm as the US immigration authorities can show no quarter in making people feel like murderers under these circumstances which can often involve a ban on the person from visiting the US for ten years. This error of Anna’s haunts her for the rest of the film – to the point that the couple break up and get back together on a number of occasions. They each get involved in fairly serious relationships with other people, who on paper seem more compatible and easier to deal with regards any outside troubles; it is often their youth that prevents them from dealing with any given situation maturely.

From the opening shot of Anna giving her presentation the viewer is given a voyeuristic and naturalistic view on the couple as the camera shakes and awkwardly frames the images as if this were a John Cassavettes drama that sometimes seems to intrude on sensitive and private matters. In this sense it makes it all the more believable especially when compared to the decidedly more Hollywood romcom style of last year’s Going the Distance with Drew Barrymore which has a similar framing story except without the visa issues. It really only falls into formula with the montage played to a soundtrack as the young lovers frolic and play on the beach and enjoy their summer together played to a jolly soundtrack until we see the sun going down in a montage scene that is almost exactly like the one in the aforementioned Going the Distance. Throughout the film the soundtrack is a melancholic acoustic score from newcomer Dustin O’Halloran.

The film develops and changes pace and direction throughout and has a melancholic ennui from beginning to end. Although we are led to believe that the films conclusion will have a standard happy ending it is, like any relationship in life, left open ended raising many questions as to how the young couple will make their relationship work given their history together. Don’t be fooled, there are very few laughs in this film and only occasionally does it fall into the standard formula. Like many films set in London one is given the impression that London is an easy city to live in which peoples living standards are not compatible with their income and this is true here of Anna’s life in London. At another stage in the film when Jacob is over visiting Anna in England and her enjoying dinner at her parents who are naturally worried about the couple’s future together to which Anna’s brandy loving father awkwardly suggests that the pair might have to consider marriage. At the screening I was sitting through this received guffaws and much laughter (the only time in the film) to which I frowned – I can tell you from experience that if such a couple wish to stay together that is exactly the road they will have to go down given the difficulties couples in genuinely loving relationships from different non-European countries have to face – particularly true with the harsh measures on immigration or even visiting imposed by the USA. Like Crazy has had some advanced interest and is definitely a film of our times that is more than a love story but also a film demonstrating not only how difficult a long term relationship can be but how the closing of borders can be an obstacle to true love – albeit one that can be overcome with will, determination and patience.

Chris Hick