Like Crazy

After the phenomenal success of Marc Webb’s 500 Days of Summer, it can safely be said that the British public have a growing appetite for teen love stories filled with pretentious emotion. Opening the year is Drake Doremus’ Like Crazy.

It’s a tale of two high school sweethearts who find love in America but complications ensue when Anna (played by Felicity Jones) overstays her visa and has to return back to England, much to the dismay of boyfriend Jacob (Anton Yelchin). Consequently, the film follows the couple over the next three years as they try and make their relationship work over long distance. It is endearing to see two actors both being given the opportunity to hold a feature film together, with little help from a supporting cast.

Both characters are genuinely believable and with a script which pits Anna as the more in love one out of the couple, it is refreshing to see young love from a girl’s perspective. Yelchin holds his own here as the light-hearted but equally enigmatic Jacob – who could have come out of his shell a bit more only if he were given more screen time. Numerous montages of the couple’s relationship allow the script to keep a good pace and, cleverly, not get too boring.

Having such an emotionally powerful trailer gave the viewer high expectations which were matched to an extent, but it seems nowadays, to attract the teen audience, that Hollywood enjoys taking the “kooky” approach. With Like Crazy, this works in playful scenes between the two protagonists – however more scenes like this could have made their relationship a more heart-felt one. In terms of the comedy aspects, Anna’s parents Jackie and Bernard (played by Alex Kingston and Oliver Muirhead respectively) typify middle-class parents perfectly and add a much needed bit of comic relief in a picture that could only be described as sombre.

Like Crazy pulls at all the right heart strings and couldn’t be a better platform to introduce two very young, but very talented actors for whom 2012 will be a very important year.

Verdict: ••••

Richard Taverner

Watch the trailer of Like Crazy here

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