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Like Crazy (2011)
1/10
Not a love story at all...
19 August 2012
I rented this movie with low expectations and the movie didn't even live up to that.

Based on the cover, premise, trailer, and marketing campaign, I expected to see some semblance of a modern day romance dealing with the trials of young love and long distance relationships. Most movies make you care about the things that the on screen couple have to go through, but throughout the movie I could only think of how unbelievable this relationship is, and how stupid and unsympathetic the characters are.

The basic premise of the movie is boy and girl meet in college, develop a relationship, become so in love with each other that they can't stand to spend a few months apart, girl overstays visa and is unable to come back, and the effect on their relationship that long distance has on them.

The movie didn't really demonstrate why they were together at all. The director and cinematographer chose poor camera work and story telling to document their relationship. We get snippets of the same scene, only with different 1 second camera angle changes or minor body movement changes, over and over, as if to document these slices in time of their relationships. It was not helpful at all, merely making glaring obvious the omission of the majority of their relationship. I understand that the director may have been going for showing all other parts of a relationship, not just the love part, but still.

The actor and actresses fail to develop any chemistry, their scenes together do not convince me that they should be together with each other. The few normal conversations they have with each other face to face seem to be filled with awkward conversation and just plain awkwardness. Ironically, their sadness at being apart is apparent, but I don't believe them when they are together.

All in all, poor directing, lack of chemistry, and unsympathetic characters (stupid decisions, agony over problems that have simple solutions) made this movie practically unwatchable for me.
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7/10
enjoyable leads and good chemistry
9 July 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Romantic comedies need to fulfill two criteria - provide some romance that the audience can lose themselves in, and to make the whole affair lighthearted enough to have a couple laughs. Don't Go Breaking My Heart does succeed in constructing a romantic triangle and a couple of laughs to go along the way, but as far as being realistic, it is not.

Gao Yuanyuan plays Cheng Zixin, the female in the love triangle along with Louis Koo as Cheung Shen-Ran and Daniel Wu as Fang Qihong. In this world that the movie constructed, Shen-Ran is an affluent CEO of an investment company that operates in the building opposite Zixin. After noticing her on the bus, and seeing her have an incident with her horrible ex, he later tries at work to cheer her up by sticking a smiley face post it note on the window for her to see. This works, and they begin to communicate across buildings visually.

Concurrently, after Zixin's incident on the bus, she was distraught and walked through the streets without noticing her surroundings. Just as a car was about to hit her, Qihong saves her. They part ways, with Qihong continuing to drink his alcohol. Later, Zixin sees him at the supermarket buying alcohol, and she proceeds to give him all her ex's things. After selling those things, Qihong encourages Zixin to spend the money on herself. At the end of their night, Zixin gets Qihong to promise to quit drinking and return to his architectural work.

With this stage set, the movie progresses to develop the relation between the characters. The actors' chemistry works, and situation, while corny, do seem to work. However, it is a little too obvious which guy she should pick, so her indecision makes her a little more unlikable as the movie goes along. The fact that it appears she is seduced by money (one guy buys her a Maserati, an apartment) adds some realism to the movie, but its not what we want to see in a romantic comedy.

There are some comedic bits, particularly with Qihong's interactions with the frog, and with Zixin's boss.

This movie creates a world full of attractive people and money. The men in the movie act like men in the real world (lust, love, etc.) but the young females in the movie except Zixin seem to be a little whorish (easily seduced, seductively dressed).

But, as a romantic comedy, it provides the romance and the comedy.
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