By Kate Rohr

There is always a danger when you have expectations of a film before you watch it. But plot expectations, where you think you know what will happen in the movie, are just bad news. So if you plan on seeing “Like Crazy,” and I recommend that you do, please put aside all expectations of what will happen. Because you’re most likely wrong.

As I settled into my plush red seat with my butter-soaked popcorn, I prepared myself for a touching and sweet romance between two young people who live on different continents. What I got was “Like Crazy,” which was instead about a painful and drawn-out romance between two young people who live on different continents.

The actual plot goes something like this: Anna and Jacob fall in love their senior year of college, but Anna is from the UK and has to go back because her visa expires. She violates the visa in order to be with Jacob longer, gets into lots of legal trouble, is shipped back to the UK and temporarily banned from the US. This physical separation is extremely difficult for them, and the movie follows their efforts to make their relationship work.

For days now I’ve been trying to decide if I enjoyed “Like Crazy” or not, and I’ll explain my dilemma to you: I wasn’t very emotionally invested in the characters by the end of the movie. At the beginning, I loved them, I rooted for their relationship, I wanted to be Anna (Felicity Jones) and I wanted to marry Jacob (Anton Yelchin – and in case you’re reading this, Anton, I still do). But by the halfway point in the movie, I didn’t really care anymore – I just wanted them to make a decision! Their relationship starts out so innocently, and it’s clear that their love is so true, but then life gets in the way and everything gets messed up. But Anna and Jacob rarely make concrete decisions that they can stick to, and end up just stringing each along over who knows how many months because of a deep connection they had as seniors in college. I was annoyed with them both for their inability to either make a firmer commitment or break up for good.

Yet on the other hand, I love the way “Like Crazy” was made. The director, Drake Doremus, really puts the viewer inside Anna and Jacob’s heads as they languish through this confusing relationship. And while I didn’t necessarily like them by the end, I did understand them. The entire script was improvised, which made each line so much more real, and the movie as a whole incredibly realistic.

Perhaps that’s what was so irritating – the film’s adherence to reality. Nothing in life is as clean and complete as we want it to be, and that’s exactly what the film portrayed. The final scene leaves you hanging, wondering which way their relationship will go. Now personally, I like deciding for myself how I think the story plays out after the credits roll by. But if you like to have a more conclusive ending, then just look up Drake Doremus, because “Like Crazy” is a semi-autobiographical project of his.

I’ve been bouncing back and forth trying to decide my thoughts about “Like Crazy,” and I think I liked it. So I’ll give it a tentative 6. If I hadn’t had so many plot expectations, I think I would have enjoyed it more, so please go in with a blank mind! But it’s still a very good film – plus, Anton Yelchin is really cute – so go see it!