Like Crazy

You have to be careful when handicapping the Oscar races early. Over the summer, this seemed like a possible shocker and Cinderella story coming from nowhere to capture the hearts and minds of the voters. Then, we saw the movie.

Anton Yelchin stars as Jacob - a college kid studying furniture design who meets the love of his life, Anna (Felicity Jones). They have a great senior year doing all of the things two crazy kids in college and in love would do, but it's all going to come to an end, since she is British and will have to return to London after her Visa expires.

Is this just a school child affair, or can they make it last as a long distance relationship?

In real life, they always say you can't analyze or try to understand what makes two people into a couple. However, this is a movie, so we need to see the chemistry, the excitement, the passion and all of the arguments why these two are together. Instead, Like Crazy is far from that. It is Like Bland.

Director/co-writer Drake Doremus and co-writer Ben York Jones might be going for subtle and understated, but give us boring. As a viewer, I don't see and understand the great bond between Jacob and Anna, which makes the plot twists showing them growing apart lack the power and urgency needed to make Like Crazy a compelling movie.

Worst of all, they need to tell the story better and make the characters more interesting. Characters, especially Sam (Jennifer Lawrence), come out of nowhere without much explanation. Then, I am left scratching my head wondering what makes Jacob such a great catch to have two women with options choose to be with him. Gloomy Gus is a better character name for a guy who spent 4 years in college studying furniture design and seems to make one style of chair. That's it! One chair! That's the same number of dimensions we get with Like Crazy.

Like Crazy is rated PG-13 for sexual content and brief strong language.