By ALAN SAMUEL
Young lovers seem to be heading on a collision course in Like Crazy, a significant drama from Paramount Vantage now drawing folks in at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas.
Fall is the time when Hollywood brings out it’s more serious fare. Right at home in this camp would be Like Crazy, a serious drama from Paramount Studios bound to get people thinking. Even at the best of times relationships can be tricky affairs. Throw into the mix a problem of distance and the element of lapsed time and you just know the road to love will be rocky for our two main protagonists here.
Los Angeles and England are the home base for two young lovers. School is a great place to meet new friends and potentially to make out as is the case of work sites. Both these elements come into play for Jacob and Anna. Based in Los Angeles, Anton Yelchin (Star Trek) is well suited to play the shy and retiring Jacob while Felicity Jones (The Tempest) does justice to her British brethren as a wayward student in search of her soul mate.
How the two meet up is irrelevant. What is important here is that Anna is only allowed to stay in the U.S. for a limited time period according to her visitor visa. Once the relationship between this pair of transplants heats up government bodies intervene and Anna is forced back to the UK. How the pair are able to wrestle with being away from one another provides the real “meat” to Like Crazy.
Its not easy to bide your time when your away from your loved one and both individuals hare a real hard time staying “faithful”. Parental interference adds a touch of levity to the tons of soul searching Jacob and Anna endure as they wrestle with their emotions. Complications on both sides of the Atlantic begin to grate on their relationship which adds more fuel to the fire in this heavy drama that looks at love and all its ups and downs.
After a slow start director and co-writer Drake Doremus (Spooner) faithfully examines the pitfalls in long distance relationships. All the acting here is strong and the entire story seems quite realistic. Outside lovers are nicely portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) and Charlie Bewley (New Moon). Forget about lots of in your face nudity or sexual commotion here. Instead Like Crazy examines how two people get their personal head space “violated” and at the end your not truly sure how they’ll end up. Apart from a few scenes involving marriage that are way off the mark in terms of their authenticity there are enough strong points and good messages in Like Crazy to make it appealing as a realistic look at the tough going in keeping relationships intact.
