Like Crazy

I watched Like Crazy yesterday before I went to sleep. I thought it would just be another chick-flick and I would fall asleep in the middle of the film. Oh, how wrong was I!

It was one of those real-and-depressing movies that would just make you wonder about your life, relationships, and attitudes.

In short, it's a story about an American boy and an English girl that fall in love at university in LA. She violates her visa permit and once in England she isn't allowed to go back to America. So they must figure (or not) out what they would do to keep their love alive.

And that's where the trouble begins. They were happy together, they had some unforgettable memories, but are they real? First she was a student abroad, then he came to visit her on vacation in England.. and rightfully said he didn't feel a part of her life, like he was on vacation.

The question being tackled here is whether this kind of relationships can really work in the "real" everyday life. Surely, one can't be the same while on vacation and at home, having everyday problems, errands, and troubles. One can not be carefree all the time. That's what really screws us up. We live in those happy careless memories once lived with a person we cared about, we obsess with them expecting them to happen again, while remaining ignorant to the fact that people change, and that it would never be like that again. While living and reliving those moments in our head we neglect the persons that are by our side, just for the fact that they will never be that perfect as the person in our head. And everything IS more beautiful in our head.

The ending is always the most difficult part in this kind of movies. The director chose to leave this one open. We see just a hint of what might happen, but then we are left to make our own ending. Optimists would say that they'll stay together, they will overcome all the problems, see a professional help if needed (I read that in one forum, would have never came to my mind) etc. The pessimists (like me) would say that they grew apart, that once the idea of actually being together has become reality, they figured they grew apart, they were different persons now, that too much has happened in between for them to be careless and happy as they once were, etc.

It's really depressing, but then again, it's reality. Real love and passion rarely endures all life. Or maybe I'm just a pessimist..

I read this great interview with the director. It explains a lot of the natural feeling of the movie.