The Five-Year Engagement Review

The Five-Year Engagement Review

I'm going to start off by being completely honest upfront - I haven't seen a romantic comedy this delightfully tailored towards both genders since modern indie classic 500 Days of Summer all the way back in 2009. It's a rare thing - in this modern world where Cheryl Cole songs and Sarah Jessica Parker movies lead women to believe men will always let them down, a blue-eyed gem of cinema like this shines through to throw every romantic stereotype out of the window.

Jason Segel: always the relatable guy

The Five-Year Engagement reunites Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Muppets star Jason Segel with screenwriter Nicholas Stoller. The pairing have, in the past, been experts at portraying a real relationship hitting the rocks and the resulting struggles that come with it, albeit with slapstick comedy adding some beef to the meal. This time, however, they've really let 'rom' wear the trousers in the 'romcom' relationship, and the result is a movie with a story so real and sympathetic it's almost like watching a beautifully structured documentary.

Segel stars as Tom, a sous-chef in a fancy restaurant, while Emily Blunt portrays Violet, a British psychology student who has recently gained a PhD. After a year of dating, they become engaged but postpone the wedding ceremony when it is announced Tom's best friend and Violet's sister are getting hastily married before them. Their wedding plans are further delayed when Violet is offered a two year program at the University of Michigan to progress with her intense career.

You see where this is going now, right? As the couple's lives become more and more tangled in other pursuits and their fingers slip away from each other, they begin to question the nature of marriage and the tight strain it is putting on their crumbling relationship. 

And the 'Cutest Couple Award 2012' goes to...

It's a wonderfully told story, with enough comedic moments to keep the ever-relatable Jason Segel from becoming stale and straight faced, while Emily Blunt enjoys possibly her most comfortable role yet. The chemistry between the two acting talents is really engaging; you can practically feel the warmth radiating from the relationship. The compromises that they each have to make for the other, Tom sacrificing the momentum of his career while Violet sacrifices the security of the relationship, are situations that have appeared on film before, but never with quite this much of a heavy heart. You genuinely feel sorry that their relationship cannot complete the last hurdle, and there are moments where the couple's tearful speeches to each other feel pulled from a book of real-life conversations. 

It is these moments that give the film its push, however the fizz often goes flat when Segel and Blunt are apart from each other. Tom and Violet, while entertaining together, are often slightly weak and - dare I say it - boring on their own, allowing bizarre side-characters with stupid, immature jokes to take the limelight - I'll assume we can thank producer Judd Apatow for that. His toilet humour is welcome in movies such as Knocked Up and Bridesmaids, but The Five-Year Engagement is an innocent teenager of a film which gets peer pressured into this genre of comedy. That's not to say Apatow's involvement isn't appreciated, but the realism of the story really stays within the relationship.

The film's running time is also an issue. At 124 minutes, it's bum-numbing stuff for a movie with little action to break up the dialogue. At times it feels like a director's cut, as several scenes are pretty pointless.

Summary

Rewriting the rom-com genre for an audience who have an idea what real-life is like, The Five-Year Engagement is a suitably heartwarming and entertaining affair. Jason Segel and Emily Blunt impress hugely with their on-screen chemistry, and their characters are perfectly relateable to engaged couples of today's world whilst still allowing the movie to retain a glossy Hollywood style. The film could do with a few scenes (and unrequired 'zany' characters) cut from the extensive running time, but overall I still thoroughly enjoyed this year's most realistic romance and I can guarantee you will too.

8/10

By Dean Johnstone

Dean Johnstone is a Media and Communications student who desperately seeks your approval. Let him know much you love him by sending heartwarming comments/loveletters/poems to:

Twitter: @DJJohnstone
Email: dean.james.johnstone@hotmail.com