25 sept 2012

My Review: The Five-Year Engagement (6/10)



¨This is supposed to be exciting. It's your wedding - you only get a few of these! ¨

The Five-Year Engagement is a rare and honest Hollywood romantic comedy which explores the relationship between a couple with its usual up and downs in a very sincere way. It does have some unauthentic moments as well, but for the most part it does take the story pretty seriously. You can`t have a romantic comedy without those few eccentric moments Jason Segel likes to add to his work. These moments don’t work really well (the New Year`s costume party with Segel in a pink bunny suit, the ending which I don`t want to give away, and a weird scene between Segel and one of his female co-workers), but the rest of the film is pretty strong and authentic. My main concern with this movie was that it did seem to drag at several points of the film. The film could have been cut much shorter, two hours is very long for a romantic comedy. Jason Segel and Emily Blunt have a strong chemistry together and their relationship is very believable, we know these two characters belong with each other despite all the difficulties they have to face. It helps that both actors have worked together in the past and that you have two hugely likeable actors of their comedic caliber. Director, Nicholas Stoller, also knows Jason Segel very well as they have worked together in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Muppets. Once again they contributed with the screenplay and they leave their unique signature in the story. The Five-Year Engagement is rare, but in a good way thanks to the authenticity with which it tells the story. For the most part it never feels forced or cliché, so I would recommend this movie although it isn’t very memorable.

Tom (Jason Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt) are perfect for each other. They are very much in love and after having met for the first time exactly one year ago Tom proposes to Violet. They get engaged and everything seems to be working out fine for the couple. They have their engagement party where Tom`s best friend, Alex (Chris Pratt), and Violet`s sister, Suzie (Alison Brie) meet. Both of them spend a night together and Suzie ends up pregnant thus ruining the moment for Tom and Violet to get married. The couple agrees to postpone their marriage in order for Alex and Suzie to get married. Tom is happy in San Francisco with his job as chef at a clam restaurant, but Violet receives a very important offer for her career at Michigan University. The couple decides to move to Michigan since Tom believes he can find a decent job there and Violet can finish her degree. Tom has a difficult time adjusting to life in Michigan as he can’t find an important restaurant to work for, but Violet seems to be doing well. Her employer, Winton (Rhys Ifans) thinks highly of her and extends her position at the University. This is when the couple begins to experience difficulties and constantly find excuses to postpone the marriage that has been going on and off for five years.

The audience will find it very easy to sympathize with Tom and Violet as their relationship is believable and authentic. We know they are very much in love and have great chemistry together, but their paths seem to go very different ways. This is something that many people can relate to since it happens in the real world and we know that in order for things to work someone has to give in some way or another. The problem I had with this film beside the fact that it`s too long is that in the end we never get a solution. The entire film feels so real and authentic, but the ending had Hollywood written all over it. It`s as if they couldn’t think of a way to find a believable resolution and simply rushed things at the end. If you are going to take two hours to present an honest portrayal about relationships then you need to come up with a better ending instead of just trying to sweep everything under the carpet. This film fails to find an honest solution to the couple`s problem and leaves the audience wandering what kind of resolution they will get to in order to solve their dilemma. I guess the writers really didn’t want to take sides and left the film open ended, which would`ve been ok if they hadn’t hammered the issue on us throughout the entire film.

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