Stupid’s Arrow

“Like Crazy,” which opens Friday, is one of the rare romantic movies that I think many people (myself included) can actually imagine themselves living. That’s because Jacob and Anna, the two leads, are absolute morons.

Anna (Felicity Jones) is a Brit going to school in L.A.; Jacob (Anton Yelchin) is a TA in one of her classes. They meet, they date, she decides to overstay her student visa. Then she leaves and is astounded to find that she can’t get back into the country. An across-the-pond relationship ensues, with both people feeling SO BAD and SO LONELY because they love each other SO MUCH. There’s a lot of idiocy in the film, most of which comes from these crazy kids taking themselves and their relationship far too seriously. Every opposite-sexed person they meet is a threat; every missed call is a signal that things are going horribly wrong. Throughout the film, Jacob and Anna continue to make astoundingly stupid choices — all of which are believable if you’ve ever been in love in your 20s.

Look, if you’re not an idiot for at least part of your 20s, you’re living life wrong. It’s only by going through that time and making stupid decisions that you can come to realize that you will, in fact, recover from them and at least learn that credit cards are not for buying drinks you can’t afford. Jacob and Anna are two stupid kids in love, just like the rest of us.