Thursday, 27 June 2013

Like Crazy

Year of Release: 2011
Director: Drake Doremus
Starring: Felicity Jones, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence

I bought this film from the ‘bargain bucket’ section at the supermarket and after watching I’m glad that I only forked out three quid as I was massively disappointed with this. I had seen the trailer for it on one of my other DVD’s and I didn’t think it looked too bad. It seemed to have a decent storyline and it featured actors that I have enjoyed watching in the past – those being Felicity Jones (Chalet Girl) and Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games and Silver Linings Playbook). The other lead actor is Anton Yelchin – most well-known for his role in Stark Trek I believe…a movie franchise I know little about. With strong leading actors such as these and what sounded like a decent storyline, I was surprised by how little of an impression this film made on me.
     The story begins when British college student Anna falls for her American classmate Jacob. Over the course of their studies, the pair grow closer and become inseparable. That is until Anna’s visa expires and she is due to return home to the UK. After choosing, rather stupidly, to ignore her visa expiration, Anna’s violation results in an even longer separation for the pair as she is denied access into the US. The separation causes much tension and frustration for the couple, as they are limited to brief visits from Jacob when he can find free time from work. Over time the pair drift apart and get on with their lives separately. They both have successful jobs, good friends and even new relationships. But somehow they can’t seem to let go and they always end up coming back to each other by whatever means necessary.
     Whilst the story is romantic and heartfelt, it just never seemed to get going. I found myself constantly waiting for the story to pick up, for a bit of action or excitement of some sort. Personally, I thought it was too drawn out and it left me feeling quite bored. But the ending has to be the biggest disappointment of this film. It just seemed to come to a halt out of nowhere. Stop. That’s it. Time’s up. I am still bemused and baffled by the choice of ending that I'm questioning whether they ran out of film and just had to leave it there. Who knows? Maybe I just completely missed the point. To offer credit where credit is due though, the acting was very well executed and the story was, at least, more realistic and believable than most romance films. But on the whole, it left me suitably unimpressed.

Favourite bit: There weren't really any stand out moments for me in this one, but I thought the scene in which they exchanged presents before Anna was due to return home to England was very cute.

My rating: 4/10


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