Review: The Five-Year Engagement

Some movies have interesting concepts but just are not well executed  This type of problem lands in all genres, be it comedy, action, romance, or adventure.  They have a great idea, though the problem is making it a full length movie for people to enjoy.  Some movie will start off well, as their idea is seen for those few glimpses in the beginning, but then it drags and drags.  This was the feeling of the movie “The Five-Year Engagement”.

The movie started off strong. We were introduced to the couple, Tom and Violet, as they are heading to a New Years Eve party hosted by Violet’s sister.  Though Tom has other plans, which he ends up telling her in the car.  He’s going to ask her to marry him.  She’s so excited she tells him to go on with his plans, which he does and we meet Tom’s best friend, Alex.  This is when I first realized how the movie was going to move through time. It doesn’t give us hints on how many days, weeks, or months go by, it just goes into the next scene.

Now we’re at the engagement dinner, where we get to meet their families.  This was actually a great scene with a lot of good laughs, nice flow, and some character information.  In this scene, Alex meets Violet’s sister, Suzie.  You also learn that Alex has a reputation about him being around women.  At this time their engagement seems to be going well, though while the planning happens a few road bumps get in the way.  The biggest problem was her getting a job offer in Michigan.  She wants her career to continue, so Tom offers to quit his job and move to Michigan with her, thinking he can just get a job here in Michigan.

Now for me this was the funniest part in the movie. I laughed when he even mentioned getting a job in Michigan.  I don’t know how many of our readers are from Michigan, but if you are, you know that there are no jobs here.  Places are closed down, jobs are filled, unemployment is high, and Michigan is overall a dying state when it comes to work.   So I laughed as Tom went around trying to get a job, only because of how true it is.  This is not the state you want to move to with hopes of getting a job.

After he gets a job and she’s settled in at her job, the movie itself hits a speed bump.  While there were some funny moments, the movie started to feel long, extremely long.   The time passed in the movie, though they did not use any print on the screen to indicate how long.   You had to read into their hints that they put into the script of the characters and see the big changes between the characters.

I got annoyed with some of the stuff they showed here.  It seemed as if Tom went crazy by being in Michigan.  Now I’ve lived in Michigan all my life and the stuff they had him doing was not something you see normally, and there was no real reason for him to go this insane.  Yes, Michigan is bad, but it does not change a person as much as they had it change him.  It got to the point of just stupidity and would of been better left out of the movie.

Finally, they picked up the movie again when the two decide enough is enough and go about planning a wedding.  But she did a no-no, and so more road bumps happen.   This time things begin to go bad for them, to the point where they break up.  By this point in the movie, I was wishing the five years was over as it was not just torture for them.  The movie was still going as we have to watch where they go with their break ups. Tom appears with another girl, no real transaction of him getting with her and moving in or anything just bam here he is, and now Violet is with the guy that kissed her and caused the trouble in the first place.

The movie started at 7pm and ended after 9pm.  Over 2 hours long, this movie was way too long for the type of comedy.  A lot of the scenes could have been cut so that the real plot twisting points could have had more attention.  They could of put better hints in to help us see the time going by, like most movies do.  If they only kept the pace they had at the beginning of the movie, this film would've been a lot better.

This film was written by and starred Jason Segal.  The co-writer was also the director, Nicholas Stoller.  Others starring in the film was Emily Blunt, Alison Brie, and Chris Pratt.  The cast was good, they had their roles down and was able to make their characters come off well.

My recommendation... it’s okay to see but do not pay full price for this film, wait until it is in the dollar movies or when it’s on television.  While you will get some laughs out of the film, the long parts where it drags makes it not worth the money.  There are other choices at the main theaters that would be more worth your time and money.  If you like romantic comedies, then you may enjoy the funny parts of this movie.  If you’re from Michigan, you will get a laugh out of when the first move to Michigan.  But if you get bored easy in movies, avoid this at all cost.

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