Nobody's dying, but "Like Crazy" seems to be this century's "Love Story," as a pair of innocents fall deeply in love. The loving is more overtly physical today than it was in 1970, when Jennifer (Ali MacGraw) and Oliver (Ryan O'Neal) were the children, but love remains love, even as the calendar advances. Today it's Anna (Felicity Jones) and Jacob (Anton Yelchin); he's studying furniture design and she, an exchange student from England, is a budding journalist.
Love is almost instantaneous, and all the cliche-ridden devices to display it and prove it are right there in front of us. Yelchin goes one-up in the gift department, making a chair for the lovely Jones. O'Neal, a mere law student, couldn't match that move. A brief isn't much of a gift.
Since love stories need obstacles, the real world finds one for Jones. She goes home to England for a visit and neglects to complete the paper work that would extend her visa to return to the States. She's stuck in England, and while he comes to visit, he seems uninterested in looking to extend his furniture design business to another country. When he returns, he doesn't seem much interested in Skype, either. But then, he has Sam (the gorgeous, sexy Jennifer Lawrence) right in the office. Anna doesn't waste much time, taking up with Simon (Charlie Bewley).
Anna spends a lot of time railing at various American immigration officials. She also gains favor as a free-lance writer. Jacob designs furniture and his company grows successful.
According to publicity handouts, screen writers Drake Doremus (he also directed) and Ben York Jones wrote an outline and depended on Jones and Yelchin to take it from there. The dialogue is pretty dull. So is the direction. And, when you think of it, so was "Love Story," which won an Oscar. "Like Crazy" won a big award at Sundance.
Like Crazy opens today at several theaters
— Joe