There’s a real life lesson in the big plot twist of the film “Like Crazy.” If you’re a foreign national, don’t overstay your visa in the United States to spend the summer – or any other season – with your lover. (Or for any other reason.)
That’s what puts a huge wrinkle in the fabric of the delightful, dynamic, wistful,poetic relationship of Jacob and Anna, charmingly played by the now no longer unknowns Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones, who meet and fall in love as undergraduate students in Los Angeles.
She’s on a student visa from the UK, but when it’s time to go back to London for the summer, she opts to stay in the City of Angels, spending languorous days and passionate nights with her boyfriend. Cinematically, it’s a pleasure to watch as they eat ice cream, ride bumper cars and otherwise embrace the time they have together.
Anna’s impulsive decision has huge personal and legal repercussions that keep the couple oceans apart for the next few years, starting with her being held by immigration officials and not able to leave LAX, where Jacob is greeting her with a bouquet of flowers. It’s relationship interruptus across eight time zones.
Made for pocket change ($250,000), “Like Crazy” became an unexpected sensation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it won the top prize.
As the couple tries to resolve the visa issue, they grapple with much larger issues of love and loss.
Their quest to be together legally inspires a marriage that takes place in the UK, but instead of making them further committed to each other, it sends them into the arms of others (played by Charlie Bewley and Jennifer Lawrence).
Talk about pulling at the heartstrings. Both of those new partners have much to offer and the audience is left nearly as torn and twisted as Anna and Jacob are.
Will it be happily ever after, either in London or Los Angeles? Or was the relationship just a youthful fling to be learned from? Foolish romantics. You must see it to find out.
Like Crazy, Rated PG-13, Run Time: 90 Minutes
Directed by Drake Doremus, Written by Doremus and Ben York Jones
TAR Rating: 4 Stars
