Like Crazy

Thought I would do a quick review of the film 'Like Crazy', which I saw today. I had been looking forwards to it ever since the trailer during 'New Year's Eve' and was thrilled when our cinema actually decided to show it, as they are normally not the best.

The basic premise- a couple meet during uni, but the girl is an oversea's student, originally from Britain. Consequently, her Visa runs out shortly after she finishes her studies and she has to go back to England. The only trouble is that, because she is head over heals in love, she doesn't, overstays her Visa and is subsequently barred from America. The story that comes after is one of long distance love and seeing if love can last, despite time passing and many miles being between the two people.

I must say, this film did not turn out to be exactly as I thought it would be. I thought it was a tale of long distance love, but actually it is more about the longevity of love and, I suppose, 'soulmates'. The couple in the film don't want to do long distance, so we follow them each on a journey of exploration and seeing if they can ever get over what they believed to be the great love of their lives.

The style of the film, with montages of short clips, is a fantastic way to show the passing of time and give us a real idea of the couple and what they do, without having to take up too much air time. The division of time between the two characters is geat too, not confusing at all and each get enough shown about them that we can know what is going on and the background things that may influence the relationship between them.

A lot of things that I have read about the film say that the ending is not really satisfactory, but I love the way it was done. I don't want to say what happens, but the film is left pretty open, and I think that is the way it should be. Love never has a set ending or path really and something could happen tomorrow that leads to them getting back together or breaking up, so why give it a fairytale happy ending? Overall there is a great sense of realism throughout and you can believe that life could well play out in the way it does for each of them. The acting obviously comes into this too, and Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin do a great job in depicting that heady romance that comes in your teen years, whilst also being able to be adults and putting across the strain that comes into their lives as they each get going on their careers and deal with the aftermath of loss of love.

It is definitely a love story, but one which is not your run of the mill fairytale romance, it is realistic, shows the strains that do come from long distance, and leaves you feeling satisfied and unregrettful about watching it, even if it maybe doesn't give all the answers you may want.