Like Crazy

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Like Crazy
Like Crazy.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Drake Doremus
Produced by Jonathan Schwartz
Andrea Sperling
Written by Drake Doremus
Ben York Jones
Starring Anton Yelchin
Felicity Jones
Jennifer Lawrence
Alex Kingston
Music by Dustin O'Halloran
Cinematography John Guleserian
Editing by Jonathan Alberts
Distributed by Paramount Vantage
Release date(s)
  • January 22, 2011 (2011-01-22) (Sundance)
  • October 28, 2011 (2011-10-28)
Running time 90 minutes [1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $250,000[2]
Box office $3,542,353[3]

Like Crazy is a 2011 American romantic drama film directed by Drake Doremus and starring Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence and Alex Kingston. The film, which won the 2011 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize,[4] featured fully improvised dialogue.[5]

Contents

Plot [edit]

Jacob and Anna are college students in Los Angeles who become a couple. Anna is a British exchange student who, having fallen in love with Jacob, a design student, spends the summer with him, overstaying her student visa after it had expired on graduation. She returns home to London for a family obligation. When she flies back to Los Angeles as a tourist, she is detained, denied entry, and sent back to England by Los Angeles airport immigration officials, throwing the couple into an awkward and strained long-distance relationship.

Anna is banned from entering the United States for this prior violation of having overstayed her original visa. The deep love of the couple is strained by the distance and frustration of not being able to see each other except when Jacob can make time away from his successful design business in Los Angeles to visit Anna in England. Anna's family in England hires an immigration lawyer to try to get the ban lifted and allow Anna to return to Jacob in the United States.[6] Anna's father suggests that marrying may help to get the ban lifted. Upon Jacob's return to the US, and after an undisclosed time, he begins a relationship with a work colleague (Jennifer Lawrence). Anna continues to struggle with her feelings for Jacob and eventually phones him up suggesting that they should marry, that no other relationships that they experience are like the one they have together.

Jacob returns to the UK and marries Anna in a small court ceremony with her parents as witnesses. They are told to wait 6 months before appealing the ban on Anna's visa. Jacob returns to the UK after 6 months for the appeal, which is unsuccessful and their relationship is compromised. They again begin relationships with other people after a fight about it, but Anna and Jacob still feel a profound connection with each other. Anna gets promoted at her work to a position that she is really happy about. Anna's boyfriend at the time, Simon, proposes to her in front of her parents.

Shortly after, Anna finds out from her lawyer that her ban from the United States has been lifted. She gives up her job, her current boyfriend and her apartment and returns to Los Angeles to Jacob. Jacob greets Anna at the airport with flowers, but their reunion is strained and awkward because of all the ups and downs of their relationship.

Reunited and without any legal impediments to being together, Anna and Jacob are shown to be starting a life together. The film closes with the two in the shower reminiscing about their initial courtship. The future of Jacob and Anna's relationship is unclear.

Cast [edit]

Inspiration [edit]

Like Crazy has been described as loosely inspired by the real-life experiences of director Drake Doremus, and in an interview with his ex-wife Desiree Pappenscheller, who was born in Austria, she claims that the film is a reenactment of Doremus and Pappenscheller's romantic and marital history including her United States immigration problems.[7][8]

Production [edit]

The film was shot with the inexpensive Canon EOS 7D DSLR camera, and its budget did not exceed $250,000.[2] Produced by Crispy Films, the film was acquired by Paramount Vantage and production company Indian Paintbrush as a joint venture. It was released in the United States on October 28, 2011.[9]

Yelchin and Jones were cast into the main roles. Prior to filming they met in a Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles to get to know one another.[9] Jones told Steven Zeitchik from the Los Angeles Times that "I remember thinking, 'I just hope he's a good guy'". The pair then attended a rehearsal session before shooting the film, which was done without a script.[9]

Reception [edit]

Like Crazy has a 73% "certified fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes; the consensus states "It has the schmaltzy trappings of many romantic films, but Like Crazy allows its characters to express themselves beyond dialogue, crafting a true, intimate study."[10] The film was The Christian Science Monitor's third best film of 2011.[11]

Upon the film's January 2012 release in the UK, Philip French described it as "likable, lightweight, bittersweet" and a "less knowingly smart, less entertaining conflation of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, stretched out over four or five years."[12] According to Robbie Collin, "Like Crazy is a well-acted and obviously heartfelt film, and at times it's also a wispily beautiful one. Unfortunately, any attempt to appreciate its not insignificant charms is hindered by an overpowering desire to grab the main characters by the shoulders and give them a good shake....Doremus has clearly fallen head over heels for the techniques of the French New Wave, but it’s less of a romance than an infatuation. He mimics the handheld camerawork and improvised dialogue of Godard’s Breathless et al—except, 50 years on, those techniques have a very different effect, perversely making the film feel more premeditated, less immediate."[13]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Like Crazy (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2011-12-08. 
  2. ^ a b Lyttelton, Oliver (October 26, 2011). "Drake Doremus Says He Shot 'Like Crazy' For $250,000 On A $1,500 Still Camera". IndieWire. Retrieved 2011-11-13. 
  3. ^ Like Crazy at Box Office Mojo
  4. ^ Jay A. Fernandez; Daniel Miller (January 29, 2011). "Sundance: 2011 Festival Award Winners". Hollywood Reporter blog "Risky Business". Retrieved 2012-06-21. 
  5. ^ "Felicity Jones: rising star". The Daily Telegraph. July 31, 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-17. 
  6. ^ "Like Crazy". Variety. January 22, 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-22. 
  7. ^ Garrison, Cassandra (October 4, 2011). "‘Like Crazy’: Based on a true story?". Metro. Retrieved 2011-10-04. 
  8. ^ Carrillo, Sarah (August 30, 2004). "Student's visa leaves her stuck in Austria". Graphic. Pepperdine University. Retrieved 2012-01-27. 
  9. ^ a b c Zeitchik, Steven (October 23, 2011). "A 'crazy' little thing called love". Los Angeles Times. (Tribune Company). Retrieved June 11, 2012. 
  10. ^ Like Crazy at Rotten Tomatoes
  11. ^ Rainer, Peter (December 21, 2011). "10 best movies of 2011 - 'Like Crazy'". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2012-01-27. 
  12. ^ French, Philip (28 January 2012). "Like Crazy – review". The Observer. Retrieved 2012-01-30. 
  13. ^ Collin, Robbie (27 January 2012). "Like Crazy, review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2012-01-30. 

External links [edit]

Awards
Preceded by
happythankyoumoreplease		 Sundance Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
2011		 Succeeded by
Beasts of the Southern Wild
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