Big Miracle ***

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Posted: 09/02/2012

Whether you remember the plight of the California Gray whales back in September 1988 or not, the dramatic rescue that involved the residents of Barrow, Alaska, international media coverage, two entrepreneurial brothers and the governments of the US and the Soviet Union working together is pure family movie gold, and just another entertaining but subtle and meaningful nudge in the environmental awareness direction.

In small-town Barrow, news reporter/cameraman Adam Carlson (John Krasinski) is waiting for his breaking news story to propel him into the big league. When a family of three California Gray whales find their way back to the open Arctic sea blocked by rapidly forming ice, Carlson and ex-girlfriend, Greenpeace activist Rachel Kramer (Drew Barrymore) spring into action to form one of the biggest global rescue operations against Nature’s design ever.

Director Ken Kwapis and writers Jack Amiel and Michael Begler are aware that the emotive story needs no further milking, and rightly focus on the strengths of the characters involved and their determination to succeed while injecting the story with lighter-hearted moments, using the talents of Krasinski and a gregarious Ted Danson as the flamboyant local oil businessman J. W. McGraw. However, the characters are as trapped on the ice as the whales are under it, and although perfectly believable – or the story would grind to a halt there and then, are limited by the sum of their own parts, and feel like merely a cacophony of voices in a bitter but beautiful environment after a while.

Even Barrymore who usually excels as a stubborn champion of justice finds her character’s own voice drifting off into the Arctic atmosphere at moments – and even Kramer’s courageous but foolish venture under the ice seems to have lesser impact on the storyline than it should. Still, Barrymore’s cherub good looks, infectious spirit and girl-next-door appeal manage to keep the impending disaster active and interesting. There is also time for the huge significance of events in challenging our perceptions of what matters in life to flag the characters’ individual issues as mini drama series sub-plots – such as the implied lack of communication that caused the Carlson-Kramer relationship to previously crumble.

Although the whales’ plight should be enough – and their screen time does feel slightly compromised in favour of the egoistical plight of the humans’ situations, without going down the documentary route that would have been a more powerful environmental message, the filmmakers stress man’s need to reconnect to nature and what is important throughout, without being overtly self-righteous. The end rescue scene, although a cinematic take on historical reality, nicely reaffirms our great nations’ need to bond to tackle environmental scares while showing our helplessness in the face of Mother Nature.

Big Miracle grows on you as the seriousness of situation unfolds and the breathtaking surroundings keep you in awe, and is as inspiring as any family-centric film can be, without being too insipid and manipulative. With an attractive cast to boot, it channels its sentimentality in its diverse characters and their united defiance of defeat that if it had not been based on a true story – or had the ‘real-life’ footage tacked on at the end, would be much harder to believe.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (3D) **

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Posted: 09/02/2012

You all know the story from back in 1999, the prequel of how young Anakin Skywalker – played here by cutesy Jake Lloyd – began his journey on the road to Jedi Knight status, while harbouring a darker side that would later reveal itself in Episode III. The hope was that the latest offering in 3D would turn George Lucas’s 2D The Phantom Menace with its fairly average storyline into an interactive Star Wars 3D Mecca for fans who have been longing to see the spaceships and lightsabers fly out of the screen towards them while re-immersing them in the intergalactic battle of good verses evil.

Never say never to revamps, especially with new technology to hand, but what has happen here is nothing short of pimping up a lame dog of a storyline that was on shaky legs in the first place – and this reviewer had blissfully forgotten how irritating Jar Jar Binks was. There is also the more troubling feeling that leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth at being charged 3D ticket prices for reliving the whole tedious experience once more. Granted, some fans will be happy to do this, regardless.

The 3D only works in dramatically contrasting sequences such as the bright spacecraft against space and planets in the battle scenes. Unfortunately, a lot of the darker-exposed moments of the film and night-time/underwater shots do not render as well, merely creating fuzzy images where the 3D technique has been applied, lazily adding a little more depth of field in most cases. Coupled with the fact that a vast majority of the film is still watchable in 2D – if you lift your specs, and because Lucas’s grand vistas often show all the action playing from left to right, the 3D effects feel underused and oversold.

The only plus point is introducing newbies to the big-screen Star Wars experience – if the 3D price is right for you. Short of that, the flying thrill rides and Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson cringeworthy Jedi portrayals can still be enjoyed just as well in 2D, straight out of the DVD/Blu-ray boxset.

2/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Young Adult ****

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Posted: 02/02/2012

High school reunion flicks are ten a penny, and play to our morose curiosity of what others are up now, and how better/worse others have faired since leaving education. Up in the Air director Jason Reitman has teamed up with Academy Award-winning writer Diablo Cody of his other hit teenage dramedy, Juno, to take this ‘home-coming’ idea to depressing new levels of self reflection and blacken humour that the results of unregulated and misguided nostalgia can generate.

Charlize Theron is Mavis Gary, a writer of teen literature that is going out of fashion who returns to her small hometown to relive her glory days and attempt to reclaim her happily married high school sweetheart, Buddy (Patrick Wilson). When returning home proves more difficult than she first thought, Mavis forms an unusual bond with a former classmate, Matt (Patton Oswalt), who hasn’t quite gotten over high school, either.

Cody is simply untouchable in this genre, exactly capturing in words and expressions the dormant demons of our youth and awakening them, so much so that the sheer honesty of her writing in this – minus the candid and sharp observations of Juno – has an alarmingly bittersweet effect as we witness Mavis’s delusions of grandeur, monumental indiscretions and cringeworthy mistakes. The truth is in the character detail, the fact that Mavis is far from happy and successful in life – aside from the obvious alcohol addiction, from the moment she replays the same old song of her youth in her car to recapture her lost self-esteem and school stature, to the tragic meltdown on a front lawn. The sobering fact this film emphasises is people don’t change – circumstances do, and it’s how we deal and grown with them that ultimately defines us in (hopefully) a better way.

Theron is an absolute riot in this, despicable most of the time as troubled Mavis. She strips away any past glamour, and reiterates her award-winning Monster star power by making Mavis a method-acted challenge, rather than falling into the genre stereotype. Her character’s self-destructive patterns leave possibilities wide open for what transpires next, and highlights the irony that Mavis – against her will – is far more content without aspiring for the trappings of success she deems as necessary. Cody layers her main character with other personal issues that affect her behaviour, such as depilating depression that even the best cosmetic efforts cannot hide.

It’s Theron’s unusual but riveting partnership with Oswalt that provides some of the most memorable and poignant moments in the film. Far from being a pathetic man-child stuck in the past, Matt earns a respectful strength of character as the film progresses, which merely reflects Mavis’s faults and inner ugliness. In fact, Mavis’s actual problem with former school ‘loser’ Matt isn’t his lack of ambition and drive to reinvent himself by escaping small-town living, but her own shocking realisation that her chance has been and gone, and any way of getting out of the mire is being hindered by her own personality and self-inflicted issues.

As coming-of-age stories go, Reitman and Cody’s Young Adult is a stone-cold sobering one of sheer brilliance, packed with ironic laughs and painful honesty and observations. Theron is in finest form yet, giving a courageous mixed portrayal of immaturity and enlightenment as one lost soul searching for purpose.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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LFF 2011: Martha Marcy May Marlene ****

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Posted: 02/02/2012

Not to be confused as one of the cutesy tween stars, the Olsen Twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley, little sister Elizabeth has cut her fledgling feature film teeth with far more sinister material in debut writer-director Sean Durkin’s psychological thriller, Martha Marcy May Marlene. Olsen’s performance can only be described as a groundbreaking career move as she takes the lead as Martha, a girl escaping the clutches of a cult existence. Durkin’s unsettling and whimsical thriller is so effective in disorientating the viewer, as you try to decipher what is fact and fiction through the eyes and memories of a troubled young woman, that it leaves more disturbing questions than answers.

After two years living under the name of Marcy May, Martha (Olsen) runs away from a hippie-style, self-sufficient commune run by the enigmatic Patrick (John Hawkes) after witnessing some atrocities. She contacts her estranged older sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson), who is happily married to Ted (Hugh Dancy) and living a prosperous lifestyle away from the city. But back at her sister’s holiday home, Martha begins reliving the nightmares as we question who is the real danger in a somewhat idyllic setting?

Those of us unfortunate enough to come into contact with such cult-like groups will acknowledge that the effects on any one person are very different to another, and the subtly with which the ‘teachings’ – or reprogramming – occurs makes re-assimilation into society all the more tenuous, even treacherous on the individual concerned. Durkin has captured this slow and deliberate process with great expertise and harrowing effect in his filming style, also showing that the ‘victim’ (Martha) can also be the perpetrator.

Durkin wants our empathy with Martha’s experience to stand firm, hence the lines drawn at the start of the film are very clear, with Olsen painting a tragic, haunted and exhausted case after her cry for help. We witness her numbed personality and fully experience the frustrations of Martha’s sister and sceptical brother-in-law as they try to gain ‘the truth’ during her changeable mood swings. Here, our sympathies grow for a family divided.

It is only after Martha’s increasingly erratic behaviour that our sympathies then become shredded, and the flashbacks fill in more of the picture. Every gesture or quote from Marcy May’s lifestyle is never squandered, but rears its ugly head later on in some part of the story, making for a highly accomplished piece of first-time writing. That said Durkin deliberately leaves elements unanswered to continue challenging our perceptions and prejudices that cloud our altering judgements.

Naturally, with such a controversial subject matter, some might have trouble watching the more abusive scenes, which are never titillating as to cause unnecessary offence or diminish to the problematic nature of societal faction groups, as there are so many elements at play. However, these scenes are more menacing in a subconscious way as we try to reason our way through events, and figure out what is the appropriate response at times. In a sense, Durkin has become both educator and manipulator, with his star, Olsen, as his alluring accomplice, and we are left with our character loyalties in disarray after watching.

Both filmmaker and star stand to benefit from this excellent and somewhat mesmerising, if fearful and a touch ambiguous psychological ride whose power is in the subtleties of the fragile human condition, as well as its astoundingly self-assured lead performance from rising star Olsen.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Man On A Ledge ****

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Posted: 02/02/2012

Expect the unexpected with Man On A Ledge, Ghosts of Cité Soleil documentary filmmaker Asger Leth’s first feature film that offers an ever varying, well-paced and highly enjoyable crime thriller scenario. In fact, Leth might well have succeeded where other directors have failed; casting Sam Worthington in a comfortable role for once, an action-man niche for his ‘reserved’ – some might argue ‘wooden’ – acting personality.

Ex-cop Nick Cassidy (Worthington) has been convicted and jailed for stealing a $40 million dollar diamond from unscrupulous Manhattan property tycoon David Englander (Ed Harris). After being released for the day to attend his father’s funeral, Cassidy escapes then ends up checking into upmarket Manhattan hotel, the famous Roosevelt Hotel, and climbing onto his hotel room window ledge, 21 stories up, in what looks like an attempted suicide bid brought on by grief. But nothing is as it seems, and everything is for a reason.

Think ‘Noughties Phone Booth meets Ocean’s Eleven‘, with a touch of Statham rough-and-ready flung in from Worthington. Apart from the nicely stimulated tension and intrigue as to where the whole narrative is heading, one of the main reasons Leth’s film works is we like Worthington’s Cassidy for no apparent reason from the start, other than we have a ‘cop’s hunch’ that he’s a guy who has taken a fall and must be allowed to restore justice – by any means. Like a Statham character – albeit minus the slick action moves, Cassidy isn’t squeaky clean, but he fights his corner and has values that we can relate to. It’s certainly a time-honoured premise that allows us to feel the world isn’t such a bad place after all, full of latter-day, flawed ‘heroes’.

Admittedly, while some parts are amusingly far-fetched – as in one gravity-defying fall at the end, another obvious reason Leth’s film is a potential hit is the attractive cast. Aside from Worthington, Elizabeth Banks is a cop negotiator playing on borrowed career time who tries to coax Cassidy off the ledge then gets a lot more on her plate than she bargained for. An athletic-looking Jamie Bell also plays Cassidy’s kid brother, Joey, teamed up with equally toned and sultry Genesis Rodriguez as his high-maintenance girlfriend, Angie. Coupled with the eye-popping gymnastics and outfits, the pair also creates a foolish comedy repartee that keeps things interesting while the tension mounts all around.

In times of austerity, Harris as Englander symbolises the latter-day folk devil – the greedy, corrupt businessman we all love to hate – and is faultless in the part. In fact, Leth’s fictional story is almost a self-serving diversion from his gritty documentary making, in that ‘the wronged’ and deserved triumphs – even if it ends with a groan-inducing slap-on-the-back for honest Irish roots and integrity.

Leth also cloaks a lot of the characters’ responses in a healthy dollop of dirty cop cynicism, which permeates proceedings and takes the edge off delivering a more polished and serious crime affair. Indeed, the film’s minor flaws, subtle self-mockery and irony work in its favour, bolstering the detailed observations and its characters’ complexed anxieties. Nobody is privy to how things will pan out, and there is a nice little twist at the end in an action flick where the sexes get to play equal in driving proceedings to fruition.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Journey 2: The Mysterious Island ***

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Posted: 02/02/2012

Our thirst for family adventure movies is never quenched, and the promise of yet another involving a mystical, far-off land packed with interesting creatures promises big things. Carving a niche in such a market is Canadian filmmaker Brad Peyton, the debut director of Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore that got mixed reviews in 2010. Tasked with breathing life back into the Journey to the Center of the Earth franchise from 2008, and with the second film simply shortened to Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Peyton’s shaky foray into family feature filmmaking has been redeemed.

In this adventure, a more mature Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) is back on another quest to find yet another lost relative at the centre of the Earth, his grandfather (played by Michael Caine), after receiving a coded message from him. Reluctantly accepting help from his mum’s enthusiastic new partner, Hank Parsons (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson), the pair decodes the message and finds the hidden location of a mystery island through the classics of Jules Verne, Jonathan Swift and Robert Louis Stevenson. But getting to the island will prove tricky and highly dangerous, and the pair enlists the help of pilot Gabato (Luis Guzmán) and his attractive and smart teenage daughter Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens) who get ‘sucked’ into the bizarre rescue.

As such ideas and mythical vistas have been seen and recreated before, Journey 2 is inevitably predictable in a respectful, copycat Jurassic Park/Avatar kind of way – even down to florescent forest toadstools from the latter. However, it bounds along on a flurry of enthusiastic energy and silly but amusing frolics and familiar squabbles between Hank and Anderson Sr, never taking itself too seriously. In turn, it provides ample family fun with good clean jokes that neither bore the adults or sore over the kids’ heads.

It also aims to spark literary inquisitiveness that will have the youngsters checking out all the old adventure classics that its own journey is based on, including the lost City of Atlantis. In addition, and as with any film in this genre, it is peppered with lessons to be learnt and appreciation for your elders – even if Caine as Anderson Sr. is as unreliable as they come, and looks like an aging rocker at the end. It also has its faults when dealing with scaling of its animals in this new world (big animals are small, and vice versa) – just check out Anderson Sr.’s fireflies illuminating his abode that remain normal size.

The casting of beefy Rock – still a man giant from Fast & Furious 5 last year – with a toned Hutcherson acting alongside Hudgens in the tiniest of shorts and vest top and with curls to die for is designed to titillate and provide the glamour among the forest undergrowth. If nothing else, this display of youthful virility will thrust Hutcherson into the hormonal and rather over-crowded teen spotlight currently occupied by the Twilight boys. Boy-next-door Hutcherson has an appealing integrity about him that carries through from the first film, even though he endearingly struggles with teenage angst and bad chat-up lines this time around. Still, he can handle bee flying – another unoriginal nod to another kids’ film classic, Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.

As for the 3D, it seems to have been deployed in this film merely to allow The Rock to do his party trick of firing virtual berries in our faces using pecks power alone – and it gets some giggles. Intimidating in size but as soft a playful puppy dog, the only really disconcerting feature of Johnson’s appearance is his oddly placed nipples that provided a fascinating, if horrifying distraction in the drearier moments. Still, the actor’s comic timing laced with sarcasm is in full supply in this, and he produces some comedy moments with Guzmán and Caine as the grown men try to overcome the obstacles standing in the way of making a quick escape. Apart from that, the 3D is just a nice, visually enhancing factor, but hardly earth-shatteringly important to the story context, so you decide whether you wish to spend the extra money when paying for a family cinema outing.

As foreseen as the ending is, it’s the journey taken that is key, in generating the laughs and the life lessons along the way. Journey 2 may not offer any exciting new premise to the genre and is not without its continuity errors, but its appealing cast has a great chemistry and an infectious team spirit that gives you a buzz and entertains you right until the corny and equally predictable finale.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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LFF 2011: Carnage *****

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Posted: 02/02/2012

Tried and tested on stage from Paris to London to Broadway, New York, Yasmina Reza’s successful play God of Carnage was always going to present a challenge being adapted for film by the playwright herself. However, the key to the story – shortened to Carnage – is the power of the acting talent assigned to play the parents; director Roman Polanski’s excellent casting of Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly as the Longstreets, and Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz as the Cowans is the absolute tour de force of the film.

After the Cowans’ son, Zachary (Polanski’s own son Elvis) ‘disfigures’ the Longstreets’ son, Ethan (Eliot Berger) with a stick in the park, the Longstreets, Penelope (Foster) and Michael (Reilly) invite the Cowans, Nancy (Winslet) and Alan (Waltz) over to their apartment to discuss what course of action should be taken next. However, a civilised, albeit contrived meeting unravels into childish chaos.

Set in New York, but filmed in Paris, Polanski’s Carnage is brilliantly acted, scripted, produced and directed, with all the nitty gritty relationship angst allowed to vent and later explode under one roof and in one location. The latter allows the tension to build from the start with the false pleasantries while Penelope drafts a formal-looking statement for the Cowans about what happened, adding in inflammatory language. The delicious development of the story is in the detail that you and the characters pick up on about each of the four players that suggests possible reasons for the kids’ ‘character flaws’ and the boys’ fight. In suppressing their true feelings, the whole fiasco and attention on pointless irrelevancies becomes a farce of epic proportions, which is where the dark humour lies.

Both sets of parents are complete contradictions that re-draw their allegiances as the story unfolds, down to basic ‘man verses woman’ and even macho traits, such as the hilarious scene involving high-flying lawyer Alan’s mobile phone, as well as the mens’ alpha dominance rearing its head over scotch and a cigar. While Waltz is delightful as the arrogant and blasé Alan, more interested in his business life than his personal one, and taking amusement from toying with his new acquaintances and his wife, it’s Reilly’s salesman character Michael who is the real catalyst in the story, manipulating the situation and encouraging the characters’ prejudices to pour forth.

Foster is a wonderful bag of shredded nerves and morals as liberal humanitarian Penelope who wants the others to see the bigger picture of the origins of violence from a world perspective. Her inverted snobbery matches Nancy’s prosperous, aloof nature, and after an unfortunate cobbler pie incident, their role reversal in the confrontation scenes allows them to see each others’ side of events as they bond over the trials and tribulations of motherhood and marriage. Winslet is rollicking drunk to behold as she lets her prissy demeanour slip.

Carnage is one of the most accomplished and illuminating comedies of this year that lays bare the true, hidden depth of its characters within a downward spiral of complete folly. Polanski’s theatrical film is a breath of comedic fresh air at the box office, and a highly entertaining must-see.

5/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Chronicle ****

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Posted: 02/02/2012

These days, it seems the only cinematic way to suitably recreate the belief that unfolding events are ‘real’ and instil a climate of fear is a cross between pseudo-documentary shooting and mimicking the YouTube generation of ‘caught-on-camera’ moments, the likes of which Paranormal Activity to Blair Witch have successfully sold. Debut feature writer-director Josh Trank and co-writer Max Landis have taken this still fresh and inspiring genre, and given it a sci-fi spin with their anti-superhero flick Chronicle.

In the story, three teenagers from very different school social spheres – loner with a troubled family life Andrew (brilliantly played by relative newcomer Dane DeHaan), popular class president nominee Steve (Michael B. Jordan) and good-natured pseudo-intellectual and average grade achiever Matt (Alex Russell) – discover a mysterious hole in the ground and climb in to investigate… After their subterranean alien find, each teen discovers they have telekinetic abilities, which they use for amusement at first, causing the unlikely trio to bond. But even with superhuman abilities, the average teenage angst and issues still bubble to the surface, and the initial fun turns sour as the new powers are used for darker purposes – namely to hurt others.

As with this pseudo-documented genre, the narrative is ever evolving and equally quizzical that it engages the viewer – even grips and controls the imagination from the get-go, as you wait for things to transpire. What Trank and Landis have done is taken the superhero genre workings of the fragile balance of good-and-evil, and added a sinister teen-angst kick to their story: It all sounds like Steve Taylor’s The Source, with teens abusing their newfound powers. However, the result is more potent than your average good guys verse bad ones, like in the X-Men, as the ‘realistic’ roaming eye, combined with everyday teenage issues could render any one of the trio irresponsible and ultimately dangerous. It’s this sense of risk and the unknown as to each character’s development that Trank has captured so effectively in using ‘amateur’ footage: Thankfully, it isn’t as nauseating to watch as Cloverfield. The ‘cinematographers’ are the cast who try and capture the best shots and angles within the story, in a sense, fully aware that their footage will have an intended audience one day, and reinforcing the self-documenting style.

The only sticking point at times is just who is ‘editing’ the footage – who’s story is it, especially as tragedy inevitably strikes? Perhaps this can be explained by the levitating powers that allow the subject to self-film, without physically operating the camera, and hence pass on the video documenting.

As for superhuman action sequences, what starts out as immature schoolboy pranks (attacking teddies and lifting girls’ skirts) with some sharp and witty observations in the script, soon turns into more regular superhero stunts: The ability to fly has been seen and done before from the days of Superman, but it’s sharing the lads’ sense of wonder in the moment that makes these these soaring sequences some of the most exhilarating to watch, as they see what their bodies and minds can do – much like watching small infants learning all over again.

The move from innocence to corruption in Chronicle’s narrative accumulates in one breathtaking climax, not because it’s riddled with any grand special effects, but because Trank sticks to the ‘caught-on-camera’ mantra, ensuring any action displayed is as ‘realistic’ as possible. It’s certainly like watching the stuff of daydreams, which is what makes Chronicle such a dynamic and genuinely exciting piece of first-time feature film-making, giving birth to an equally exciting rising star in DeHaan, too, so watch this space…

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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LFF 2011: Like Crazy ***

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Posted: 26/01/2012

Relationships are hard enough without visas, stretches of water and time differences standing in your way. Writer-director Drake Doremus’s new romantic indie drama, Like Crazy, tackles the tricky issues faced by any fledgling couple, in addition to trying to keep love alive while separated by two continents.

British college student Anna (Felicity Jones) is coming to the end of her summer term at an LA university, but has fallen for American student Jacob (Anton Yelchin), and the pair cannot bear to be parted. She decides to stay the summer, overstaying her student visa. When she returns to the UK then arrives back in the States, she is banned from entering the country. Can their long-distance love survive, particularly when both have established lives on two continents?

Doremus’s style of film is very much improvised, much like watching a pseudo-documentary about the perils of flouting immigration law. Although sweet at the start, it also feels quite claustrophobic, as if we are a ‘prying voyeuristic eye’ – like Big Brother – on the couple in their more intimate moments of passion and conflict. Jones and Yelchin initially explore their characters’ intense feelings fully on camera in a touching, yet anxious and cautious manner, without all the slushy beginnings of more traditionally set romance dramas. Doremus and Ben York Jones’s script does not shy away from portraying the more mundane or awkward times in a relationship, in addition to the blissful ones.

As the story progresses, and further obstacles present themselves, you get to witness the stresses and strains on their relationship, even when Jacob is reunited with Anna and trials living in London because of her blossoming career. Everyday life permeates the foundations of good intentions, highlighting the cracks and social differences between the pair, and it’s an emotional rollercoster that the couple always find themselves riding. The believability of their struggle is largely down to Jones and Yelchin’s naturalistic style of acting – the latter no stranger to playing intense and tortured souls within an indie context. Their engaging rapport is what fuels the story’s authenticity that they manage to construct almost effortlessly, and sometimes without words necessarily being spoken.

As the romance takes different twists and turns and some dead ends, Doremus’s modern-day Shakespearean tragedy is a thing of both beauty and danger; there is one point when you wish the pair would part ways, if only for their individual sanities. Nothing is easy to stomach in this, even in the couple’s happier moments that will undoubtedly unravel if left unmanaged.

At the same time, there are irksome moments of overindulgent pondering from both parties, particularly as when they are apart, the story is effectively more interesting. It’s also hard not to take the moralistic high ground and say how daft, almost arrogant Anna is for not just returning to the UK and waiting it out for 2-3 months, before she could have easily got another visa and returned Stateside – and without all the hassle. In a sense, the narrative then has to keep finding more reasons to convince us of why this couple should be together, especially when Jacob finds an attractive and available partner in Sam (Jennifer Lawrence) which detracts from witnessing the separated lovers’ true feelings. The inference that both are ‘creative’ beings almost justifies some pain and suffering, but if this is the case, it stands as a poor justification for them being together.

Nevertheless, Doremus uses the talents of his leads to full effect, constructing sure-fire career highlights for both Jones and Yelchin in Like Crazy. Yelchin gives nothing new in this, playing to his obvious strengths. Sadly, however ethereal at times, and brave of Jones, you cannot help but crave a little more Jones sardonic wit, much like the other feisty characters she has played. Indeed, the fact that Anna is so foolish to start off with and seems not to learn any valuable lessons as the story continues – even allowing for her being led by her heart – goes against the usually smart and assertive screen persona Jones has successfully created for herself and is admired for. Whether Like Crazy is a love story in tragic honest or not all, all depends on you rooting for Doremus’s characters from the beginning.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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