Like Crazy

'Absence makes the heart grow fonder.'

Bullshit, proximity does. Well at least what this film has led me to believe. This does play along with my tenuous intrigue of the Oscars although it is from 2011, it has a criminally underused Jennifer Lawrence playing a small part in it, you know between Winter's Bone and X Men/Hunger Games propelled her to hyper-stardom. Otherwise this is essentially an Indie-Love-story, it was the toast of Sundance in 2011 and it features Chekhov from the Star Trek reboot, the adorable Anton Yelchin, and the up and coming beautiful British actress Felicity Jones who was in Worst Witch as a young un. So I heard about this film and had intended to drag myself out of bed when it was on at the cinema but never did, so this is something I have been thinking about seeing for months now, my main intrigue was seeing Anton Yelchin (did I mention he was adorable, even with the severely premature receding hairline...) and the fact that the script was pretty much non existent, not in that they didn't say anything, in that the actors fully improvised their lines. It's supposed to make it more authentic, real, and we all want that in our love stories, don't we?

Here's where I put my critical hat on, I knew from the start that this there was going to be awkward 'realistic' dialogue, but where something like The Office (UK) made conversations sound authentic with all the gaps and eye contact, the characters at least brought with them some charisma. This is a love story about people in their early twenties, extremely creative talented people we're lead to believe, and yet there is very little interesting conversation going on, they chat and they smile, her accent is adorable, his little boy lost face is extremely endearing, but... Nothing out of the ordinary in their vocal interactions.This just throws the whole film off, it could be the most exciting love story ever but it falls flat when the characters are rubbish at expressing themselves. Sure their creativeness is at odds when they use their chosen skills to create something more, but the girl is an excellent writer and yet criminally dumb. When they are together though, something crazy happens, they are madly in love, sure there are some clips of them gazing at each other, walking around being very happy, hanging onto each other like their lives depended on it, lots of gazing, but these are all bundled up into nice little montages, free from conversation, so they appear at their most in love when they aren't actually saying anything! But the film's draw comes from the authentic improvised script you say? Well, it's pretty clear that's nothing much to get excited about.

Whilst I'm complaining, this is a film in which iPhones are readily available, yet no one thinks to Skype? Do they really have such busy disparate lifestyles (I know there's a timezone problem!) that they can't take a moment to see each other over a webcam? That would be my first thought if I was considering a long distance relationship, they call each other (with varying degrees of success) and they send letters (she's a beautiful writer) but if they really wanted to see each other, a webcam is a pretty good alternative. I know it doesn't translate to film very well but it's worth noting that this completely normal and reasonable manner of communication is completely ignored. Surely, someone, somewhere, when making this film, could have thought to incorporate this? If anything, a brief nod towards it would make the whole thing slightly more believable. Another thing which confused me quite a lot was, why didn't Anton Yelchin just move to London? He's prepared to enter a marriage - there's a big complication with Anna (Felicity Jones) visa, she overstays, fully aware of the possible complications in LA and can't return later, he's aware of this and they both choose to ignore it for a few scant extra weeks together. Anyways, that's the core issue of the film, she's not able to return to LA, he visits London but won't lay down roots there, so they engage in a long distance relationship which seems far more complicated than it needs to be. So my main point: marriage comes into it, mainly for the visa/something to fix things, as well as for love, and he freaks out but it willing to go along with it, but he can't/won't move his business. If he is talented and capable then he should try and make that work, if he does want to be with her, rather than letting her fret over the visa. But he literally doesn't and it's another thing that is mentioned but immediately disregarded, I would dump his ass for being such an intransigent fool. Is it really that difficult?

Plus where the hell are his parents? Felicity Jones' parents are so helpful and work their arses off to try and assist their daughter, but his are non-existent, did I miss something...? Why introduce one set of parents if we aren't even going to get a sniff from the others, or at least an acknowledgement of their disinterest or disappearance. These are minor niggles for me, and obviously there's not enough time when we are trying to be convinced of this beautiful/complex/realistic love story, but shouldn't someone have sat down and decided all these small details beforehand? Why is it impossible for him to move to London? Why don't webcams exist in this world? Why doens't Anton Yelchin have parents? And then in some way weave them into a realistic conversation, people have those, right? At some point in the film she could have snapped and said, 'Well, my parents suggested it, what the hell are yours doing exactly?' Or 'I tried to Skype you but the damn webcam was being rubbish again/' No? Not even for my peace of mind?

Ok, so I've gotten my frustrations out. Where was I? So, the film is desperately trying to be, I think the word is authentic, you know because everyone speaks like people, awkwardly, the camera is hand-held, the people have complex messy lives and are in turn extremely beautiful and talented. There is a lot of angst, and what is quite intriguing to me is how much the core actors are trying to sell the complex sad feelings, in comparison to the happy loving ones, I think there is a lot more effort in comparison. The scenes of them in love, if they tried too hard would be unbelievable, but there doesn't seem to be as much effort, perhaps because there's a lot more gazing, it's funny that the pair have separate sex scenes in the film, but they are with different people, I found it quite odd, wouldn't it be nice to see them give into their passions? See the fires ignite? See some electricity? No...? Oh right, yeah that would get in the way of their solemn gazes. The tougher moments they try so hard to sell them, you can see it writ all over Anton Yelchin's anguished face! Unfortunately, it might just seem to me, the natural charisma of the actors are somewhat diminished, neither seem to have a natural flair, a spark, they are both very good with the quiet moments, but perhaps it frustrates me that such creative beautiful people can't just say beautiful things to each other, or even argue convincingly, instead all of their vocal interactions are achingly standard. Perhaps, dare I say it, in the hands of more skilled actors, it would have been an amazing film, but as it is it's just blah, they are real if you will, and reality is dull.

The film asks me to invest in this pair's relationship, to believe that no matter what happens they keep snapping back together like elastic. They literally are so in love that they spend years pining for each other, they are perfect and so on. Yet they put their careers and their own needs before their relationship, which is fair enough for young professional peoples, but you either invest in a relationship or you don't. If you're going to make it work you have to make sacrifices and to be perfectly honest, he couldn't make a sacrifice for her. There I said it, I've been writing this entry for about 3 days and I've decided, the more I write about it the more angry I get and it's with him. He should have moved, shouldn't have gotten with Jennifer Lawrence, shouldn't have been such a whiny bugger when he visited and should have grown some balls and manned up and made the sacrifice. Tosser. I guess I didn't like this film at all, but I watched it. Felicity Jones is adorable. I can't think of much else to say. I don't care who disagrees with me... It was a stupid film, I'm going to watch Moonrise Kingdom again...