FILM

USA 2011 90 mins Dir: Drake Doremus Starring: Felicity Jones, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley, Alex Kingston

Just as one suspects there's a factory somewhere churning out commercials/pop video directors who go on to make empty, soulless blockbusters, so there must be a Sundance equivalent where purveyors of indie-cutesy whimsy are lovingly knitted from organic whole wheat pasta while Belle and Sebastian muzak is played on a loop. The best one can say about this drippy, formulaic long-distance love yarn, which essentially gives an artsy makeover to the Drew Barrymore romcom 'Going the Distance' for people who imagine they're too clever and sensitive for such stuff, is that it offers talented, likeable Brit Felicity Jones a meaty role to justify that premature Next Big Thing status thrust upon her before the feeble 'Chalet Girl' flopped so badly.

Still just about able to get away with playing a student at 28, Jones is a middle-class aspiring journalist in LA who starts a relationship with furniture designer Anton Yelchin, sparked by their mutual love of Paul Simon's '80s middlebrow coffee table favourite, 'Graceland'. It's not long before they're walking barefoot in the sand and waltzing along pavements while staring meaningfully into each other's eyes as plangent piano plinks and plonks in the background. But - oh no! - Felicity's visa is about to run out, forcing the lovebirds' separation. She cops off with control freak 'Twilight' hunkster Charlie Bewley while carpenter boy gets wood with blonde hottie Jennifer Lawrence. But they each wind up pulling sulky faces after sex with their new lovers, signifying profound soulmate withdrawal. Can the Atlantic and nasty officialdom keep these great lovers apart? Will we make it to the end credits without a 'shouting in the kitchen' sequence? What on earth does lovely Felicity see in grumpy, possessive Anton anyway? (Robin Askew)

Website www.likecrazy.com/

Opens: January 27

Copyright Robin Askew 2012