Like Crazy DVD Review: A Honest And Unpredictable Love Story

Like Crazy is a beautiful yet painfully realistic look into young love and long distance relationships. It’s honest and unpredictable, and it’s also not exactly what one would classify as a happy movie. So many of us misremember first loves, remember the good and conveniently forget all the bad. Like Crazy is a nice dose of reality to remind us that it wasn’t as perfect as we wish it was – or like it usually is in the majority of romantic dramas that Hollywood puts out.

Felicity Jones plays the enchanting Anna. Anna is a British college student and a brilliant writer. In one of her classes she mets Los Angeles native Jacob, played by Anton Yelchin. They have a spring semester filled with butterflies and passion, but when the term ends – Anna’s student visa also ends. While she knows the sensible thing to do is to return to Britain and say goodbye to Jacob for 2 months, her heart convinces her to change her mind. Anna’s decision to stay ends up affecting the next few years of their lives in a rather profound way. She’s not allowed back into the states after taking a quick trip home to visit her family in the UK.

Months pass, and we see how the time apart has tortured the couple. Having graduated college, both Jacob and Anna are trying to establish a new life, yet all they can think about is how they want to be with each other. Jacob enters into an on-again-off-again relationship with Sam (Jennifer Lawrence), who I honestly felt the most for in the film. Sam knows of Anna, yet cares deeply for Jacob, so she always comes back after Jacob calls things off with her for Anna. Meanwhile, Anna finds herself in a relationship with her neighbor who actually ends up proposing to her.

The film can be a painful dose of reality for individuals dealing with long distance relationships or still caught up in the notation that the relationship you had in college is the one. While lots of married couples met in college and even some in high school, first love has ended in heartbreak for so many more of us – even despite our best efforts to make it last.

I appreciated the honesty of Like Crazy. With so many love stories telling predictable tales today that are tied up in a pretty little bow with a happily-ever-after, it’s nice to see a film that tells a more mature story.

Grade: B+
Review By: Emma Loggins

Official Site: http://www.likecrazy.com/