Film Review- Like Crazy

A film that Coleen and I disagreed on, ala Siskel&Ebert duke em outs, was Like Crazy. Starring Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin as lovers that are split apart due to timing, technicalities and distance. I thought the movie was perfectly casted. I was absorbed into these characters lives, in part because of their relative lack of omnipresence in films. If Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz were in this film I don't think this movie could have taken off. (The more I think about that last statement it is probably less because those are two popular actors, but also two actors where I would have a hard time believing anything.)It is very difficult to make a truthful love story. The chemistry has to be right, for one. There is no doubting that the circumstances in this film are believable, especially between the two main actors. You are rooting for them throughout the film. Another Hollywood/Disney trap most films fall into is the "happy ever after" ending and then roll credits. This isn't how relationships are and they shouldn't be how they are portrayed, if you care about that sort of thing. The movie ends on an ambiguous note. There are many ambiguous notes throughout the film. The movie could have been titled "Goodbyes", instead of "Like Crazy". Coleen thought the "Like Crazy" title was more appropriate, because it drove her crazy. The characters live beyond the end credits and the audience is left to wonder what does happen to them. Unlike Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan that walk off with the golden retriever at the end of "You got Mail". You assume that Tom and Meg are still walking, and the dog has to be extremely tired by now. Don't get me wrong, there are certain times for happy endings. I know why they sell. They have their place. They are escapist pictures. Movies like "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset" end in ways where the lives of the characters live on past the film, much like this film. They have a life beyond the screen. To end films ambiguously is an easy trick.

To have the audience care beyond the credits because they have attached themselves to the characters is another, and harder to pull off. I thought the film was a breath of fresh air.