Like Crazy 2011

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: There's not an extraneous scene, and even the smallest moments - such as when Jacob goes to a London pub with Anna and stands around awkwardly - are ripe with meaning. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Attention must be paid, even if you occasionally want to throw pots at the screen. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: While the film is often quite moving, it's also at times frustrating; people in love, we realize, aren't always as fascinating to the rest of us as they are to each other. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: Its empathy and artful way of conveying honest observation struck a chord with me... Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Largely a conventional, wan affair, despite its art-cinema flourishes, like scenes that start and end in medias res. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Screen romance has become a saccharine affair; Like Crazy proves it's still possible to make a love story that's both genuinely sweet and bittersweet. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Like Crazy has a lively syntax and could, in an ungrateful mood, be tagged as slick. But Doremus gets the tempos right. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The music of Paul Simon's "Graceland" flows through "Like Crazy," and comments on it as well. This wise and beautiful little film is about two lovers falling from a state of grace. Read more

Alison Willmore, AV Club: Like Crazy has moments of genuine heartbreak, like a late-night phone call that leads Jones to tearfully joke that she'll wait up and Yelchin should just stop by her place, half a globe away. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: What could have come off as stilted and artificial is instead genuine and natural. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This indie drama starts off as a sexy little date movie, but once the lovers have been separated it grows steadily more complicated and mature. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The reason to see it co-stars with Anton Yelchin, around whom the project got going. Her name is Felicity Jones. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The emotional honesty of Like Crazy, which is comparable to Richard Linklater's great Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, is far removed from most of what passes in these goony movie days as youthful romance. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It's imperative for director and co-writer Drake Doremus to color the film with a great deal of blossoming-love sparkle right off the bat, and he does just that. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Like Crazy tells the truth, simply: Love is thrilling. And -- just because of the way life happens -- sometimes love hurts. Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: The couple's story is related through small, true-to-life details that paint an unidealized portrait of love - the euphoria, the sadness, and everything in between. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: Like Crazy drives complexity, and it does so stylishly and cleverly. Delightfully done by director Drake Doremus. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: Deeply felt first-love tale offers convincing performances and a fine-tuned storytelling sensibility. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Deserved winner of the grand jury prize at Sundance, this story is as simple as two people mad about each other and as complex as intense relationships inevitably get. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: It's not exactly Casablanca, but times have changed. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It's just the small story of two young people trying hard to decide whether this is an infatuation worth growing past, or a real relationship worth growing into. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Doremus has crafted an intelligent and evocative story driven by two expert leads. I liked it very much. I just wish I could say I was crazy about it. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: We get that Anna and Jacob care for each other, but the foundation for their devotion often feels insubstantial if not imaginary. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Unlike most alleged Hollywood rom-coms, Like Crazy is delicate, uplifting and definitely worth investigating. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: His characters may shy at uncertainty and ambiguity. Doremus does not. He keeps his camera trained on that smudgy line between loyalty and love. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Although Like Crazy contains some emotionally on-target scenes, the movie as a whole feels glum and artificial. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It's not a clunky rom-com; it's sweeter and more intimate. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Drake Doremus has crafted a crazily inventive and totally irresistible tale of first love that makes the familiar seem bittersweet and heart-stoppingly new. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Seriously, I liked this movie better last year, when it had Drew Barrymore in it and was called "Going the Distance." Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A romantic drama that makes other romantic films look obvious and calculated in comparison. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: It makes you squirm in your seat - not because the angst of the young love depicted on screen is so vivid and relatable, but because these two people are so incredibly annoying together, you'd much rather see them apart. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The cast creates such a naturalistic sense of empathy -- a complicity, even -- with the viewers that we're swept up into their characters' lives. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Doremus delivers a tightly focused film that's all the more impressive for being improvised. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: Belying its title, Like Crazy is a film not about the ferocity of love, but about its fragility. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Call it l'amour phooey. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Every time the two of them threaten to have a conversation, Doremus takes a page from Team America: World Police and goes all "You Need a Montage!" Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: The acting, which looks improvised, is faultless; their natural, fearless performances will surely make stars of Yelchin and Jones. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Those seeking a fresh take on romance will find Like Crazy almost existentially tepid. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: No other recent film has so deftly captured the act of falling in love or so artfully interwoven the more practical efforts of maintaining that connection. Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: Like Crazy is an exquisite, beautifully acted gem of a film, one that should serve as a prelude to bigger things for stars Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin, as well as director Drake Doremus. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: Lain on a bed of treacly piano music, this l'amour fou is l'amour tepid. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: A serious, deeply felt romance for an audience Hollywood most often bombards with raunchy sex comedies and video-game adaptations. Read more