Like Crazy (2011)

Directed by Drake Doremus. Starring Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley, Oliver Muirhead, Alex Kingston, Finola Hughes, Chris Messina. [PG-13]

A British exchange student (Jones) falls in love with an American classmate (Yelchin), but their relationship is tested when she overstays her visa and is deported back to the UK. The leads do conventional yet understated work, and the ambience marinates in a luxurious dream state of intimate handhelds, but the fuzzy lushness can’t hide the contrivances of the plot mechanism, the lack of depth to both the characters and the details of their attachment to one another, and the time-jump editing that turns the relationship chronology into an abstract painting—it’s a bit jarring when Jennifer Lawrence appears out of nowhere as Yelchin’s new significant other during one of the separations, and it wasn’t easy to tell what continent each of them were on at all times. The title suggests a certain degree of unexplainable madness to the magnets of their attraction, but these youngsters are too cozy and sweet with each other, and since the film was reportedly inspired in part by a long-distance relationship director Drake Doremus went through, I wonder if he’s trying to either validate his own experiences or rewrite memories with a yearning sense of idealism. Ben York Jones shares writing credit with Doremus, and the actors improvised much of their dialogue.

47/100