I watched this film after I couldn't get into two others. It wasn't my first choice, but I was absolutely prepared to be blown away by something unexpected. Unfortunately, it didn't happen with Like Crazy.
This film screened at Sundance and has gotten generally excellent reviews. I've heard it described using words like "stylish," "exquisite," "beautifully-acted," and "a gem."
It is certainly a stunning film in a lot of ways. The lead actress, Felicity Jones, has a kind of British porcelain perfection that's not at all unpleasant to look at for 90 minutes. And Anton Yelchin is pleasant enough too in a boy-you-went-to-school-with kind of way. The lighting is certainly "stylish," with lots of vibrant colour and sunset shots of the Santa Monica pier.
But that's where the pleasantness ended for me. The film's story is simple: a girl from London meets a boy from LA while they're both studying in California. She overstays her student visa and is barred from re-entering the States. Will their relationship survive the distance? Will they sacrifice their careers to be together? And should we care?
My answer is - not really. I found this premise terribly conventional, and the execution quite underwhelming. The acting seemed mainly to consist of open-mouthed eyelash-batting (Jones), and red-faced sweating (Yelchin). The awkwardness between the two leads seemed less a reflection on the newness of young love and more just a lack of chemistry. The picture-perfect beauty of the young people, especially the two minor characters played by Jennifer Lawrence and Charlie Bewley, became nauseating almost immediately after we're introduced to them. And the spectacularly lavish apartments and lofts where these underpaid young professionals lived actually bothered me. Where were their roommates and dirty dishes and bad paint jobs?
I admit, I'm a tad biased. I find heterosexual young love stories to be generally pretty tedious. But there have been a few I've liked, mainly because they've done unconventional things with the subject matter. Blue Valentine comes to mind, and even 500 Days of Summer had its charms.
This film just did nothing remarkable with its premise. And while it was pretty, it didn't inspire me to care about the overwrought characters and their dull love story.
The young people in the audience loved it. A girl behind me told her friend "Oh my god, that was the story of my life." And two gay guys who stayed long after the last credit rolled opined to each other "I just really want them to stay together."
Sigh. On to the next.
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