Though most of us haven’t yet seen Drake Doremus‘s Breathe In, his follow-up to the Sundance-winning Like Crazy, most of the early reactions — including our own review, which called it “a more mature, confident and impressive piece of work” than his 2011 romantic drama — suggest that it’s something of a companion piece. Both films feature Felicity Jones, Doremus co-wrote either with Ben York Jones, and they seem to explore the idea of romantic entanglements being complicated by geographical travel and distance.
It makes sense, then, that Doremus’s next film may turn out to be thematically linked — something of a trilogy-closer, even. It’s probably best to let the writer-director’s own words tell the story in this case: “I’m starting to tinker with this idea of making a futuristic love story in a sense — that this will be a trilogy of past, present and future. ‘Like Crazy‘ was about the past and had a very nostalgic feel to it, and kind of about my past. [‘Breathe In‘] is about confronting the idea of love in the present, and then what love means in the future is what I’m interested in exploring next.” [Movies.com]
Now, a “futuristic love story” would almost surely have a different atmospheric vibe than Like Crazy (and, I’m assuming, Breathe In as well), but it’s clear that Doremus would probably be tackling similar thematic interests. I’m eager to check out Breathe In — which will, in all likelihood, receive a distributor sometime soon — although I frankly didn’t find Like Crazy to be overly impressive. However, a forward-thinking setting for a romantic drama sounds like an idea filled with originality, a premise that could easily take Doremus’s work to a different level. That said, we shouldn’t be getting too ahead of ourselves here — it’s only been three days since Breathe In first premiered at Sundance. We ought to give it a bit more time before investing too heavily in what Doremus’s future may have in store for us.
Were you a fan of Like Crazy? Do you think Doremus could make the jump to a futuristic setting?