If you make a feature-length movie in one month and decide not to give your actors a script, you can expect to see some flaws in the final product. The good news for Like Crazy, winner of this year’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize for dramatic feature and the latest film from 28-year-old writer/director Drake Doremus, is that the movie’s positives far outweigh its negatives. What begins as a stereotypical story about first loves evolves into an exquisite tale exploring a complex and realistic post-9/11 long-distance international relationship.
Ironically, the lack of a script is what makes Like Crazy so good, allowing the actors to turn in largely improvisational performances that keep a heartfelt story real and intense from beginning to end. The acting is so natural and the relationship between Anna and Jacob rings so true that it’s as if the characters are friends of yours. In some ways, Like Crazy doesn’t even seem like a movie. Rather, it’s a relevant love story you need to feel to appreciate. Doremus’s willingness to let Jones and Yelchin improvise pays off, resulting in a film that explores the murkier areas of love. Anna and Jacob’s frustrating and confusing relationship spirals into surprising areas that ultimately leaves you with one question: What’s going to happen to these two people?
Like Crazy does have its shortcomings. Doremus’s attempt to cover a six-plus year relationship in just 90 minutes often comes up short, resulting in some awkward and sometimes hard-to-follow passage-of-time transitions, especially during the film’s second half. Although Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin both shine in their roles, there are moments when Yelchin’s quiet demeanor is too understated for certain situations that his character faces. In addition, Jacob’s decision to become involved in an on-and-off relationship with his American work partner Sam (Jennifer Lawrence) seems inconsistent for a guy who is so smitten with Anna.
Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin in Like Crazy. © 2011 – Paramount Pictures.
Regardless of the minor imperfections, Doremus’s splendid filmmaking makes Like Crazy one of the most honest love stories seen on film during the 2000s. An early montage showing Anna and Jacob literally spending the summer in bed is a joy to watch, as is a later series of silent point of view shots on a London subway as the couple travels to the airport. Handheld cameras and numerous shots of Anna and Jacob from behind windows and through doors add to the sense that you’re right there with them, feeling everything they’re feeling as they experience the challenges of international love in the modern world.
Director Drake Doremus took some major creative risks with Like Crazy. In the hands of a lesser filmmaker and cast, the movie would have likely been a train wreck of epic proportions. Instead, if the Academy offered an Oscar for the category of Best Drama Filmed in a Hurry Without a Script, Like Crazy would coast to an easy win this year.
