DVD Review: Like Crazy

STUDIO: Paramount | DIRECTOR: Drake Doremus | CAST: Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Alex Kingston
BLU-RAY & DVD RELEASE DATE: 3/6/2012 | PRICE: DVD $19.99, Blu-ray $29.99
BONUSES: commentary
SPECS: PG-13 | 90 min. | Romance drama | 16×9 widescreen | 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround audio | English, French, Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

As much as Like Crazy is a love story, it’s also a look at whether love can survive outside influences, and the movie doesn’t paint a pretty picture. Heavier on drama than romance, this film is NOT a good choice for date night.

Like Crazy stars Anton Yelchin (The Beaver) and Felicity Jones (Chalet Girl) star as American Jacob and British Anna. They meet while both attending college in Los Angeles and fall in love. When her visa expires, she decides to stay in the U.S. for the summer, go home for a wedding, then come back as a tourist. U.S. immigration services has a different idea, of course, sending Anna back to the U.K. on the next flight home.

And so proceeds the couple’s relationship from long distance. As Anna battles with the INS to get a new visa, the two try to go on with their lives apart. They struggle with trust, and their times together get increasingly awkward. They even try being with other people, Jacob in America with Samantha (Jennifer Lawrence, X-Men: First Class) and Anna in London with Simon (Charlie Bewley, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1). No matter what they do, Jacob and Anna keep getting drawn back together. But not all love stories have happy endings.

Director and co-writer Drake Doremus (Spooner) keeps the movie personal, the focus squarely on the couple. He tries to answer the questions of why Jacob doesn’t just move to London (his new furniture design business has momentum in L.A.). But ultimately, the screenplay, co-written by first-time screenwriter Ben York Jones, leans heavily toward Anna making sacrifices and Jacob pulling away, which leads to more questions of why these two continue to try to hold onto a relationship.

As I said, not exactly a heap of romance.

Yelchin and Jones carry the movie beautifully, showing their love and pain with skill. And Lawrence plays the other woman with a quiet subtlety. Her Sam is the biggest victim in the film.

The DVD only has one special feature, a commentary with Doremus, editor Jonathan Alberts and cinematographer John Guleserian. The pals reminisce about the shooting as they watch the movie, pretending to be tourist as the filmed in L.A.; how Alex Kingston (TV’s ER) and Oliver Muirhead (The Social Network), who play Anna’s parents, first met 10 minutes before their first scene; and how, as Doremus says, “You don’t need words,” in most scenes. Doremus is the most talkative, but the commentary is energetic and enthusiastic.

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