Anna (Felicity Jones), a British journalism student in Los Angeles, falls for Jacob (Anton Yelchin), a student of furniture design, and he for her. In fact, so thoroughly do they fall for each other that she overstays her student visa so that she can stay with him through the summer. This causes her problems when she next attempts to re-enter the USA - the Immigration Service don't like people who break the rules. The fractured romance continues as they both try to stay in contact, stay faithful to each other, and get on with their lives, and not always successfully at any of this.
So this is another little real life drama, my second of the day (following The Descendants). And I badly wanted to like it: I like and am impressed by Felicity Jones, Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence, and Alex Kingston is no slouch, either. And, excitingly (at least for the actors), I understand that much of the film was improvised by the performers.
Perhaps that's the problem. Because, without going too deeply into it, this is an unsatisfying movie. Filmed in fly-on-the-wall style (ie. hand-held camera throughout), it annoyed me and bored me in equal measure. The improvised dialogue is, indeed, true to real life - mundane and ordinary, with no cleverness to it (albeit well acted, especially by Lawrence). And the story, such as it is, meanders tediously through the rather dull lives of these young people. The only interesting thing is their romance, and once the Atlantic Ocean separates them, that particular point of interest is gone. And when I factor in my irritation at their stupidity (overstaying the visa in the first place, not getting married straight away as the obvious solution to the problem), I spent the majority of the film frustrated at how poorly this film told this drab story about these two uncharismatic youngsters, and how incredibly long it took to tell it. Still, at least the payoff was worth it. Oh, wait - no, it wasn't.
So this is another little real life drama, my second of the day (following The Descendants). And I badly wanted to like it: I like and am impressed by Felicity Jones, Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence, and Alex Kingston is no slouch, either. And, excitingly (at least for the actors), I understand that much of the film was improvised by the performers.
Perhaps that's the problem. Because, without going too deeply into it, this is an unsatisfying movie. Filmed in fly-on-the-wall style (ie. hand-held camera throughout), it annoyed me and bored me in equal measure. The improvised dialogue is, indeed, true to real life - mundane and ordinary, with no cleverness to it (albeit well acted, especially by Lawrence). And the story, such as it is, meanders tediously through the rather dull lives of these young people. The only interesting thing is their romance, and once the Atlantic Ocean separates them, that particular point of interest is gone. And when I factor in my irritation at their stupidity (overstaying the visa in the first place, not getting married straight away as the obvious solution to the problem), I spent the majority of the film frustrated at how poorly this film told this drab story about these two uncharismatic youngsters, and how incredibly long it took to tell it. Still, at least the payoff was worth it. Oh, wait - no, it wasn't.