The Five Year Engagement – 2.5/5 Movie Reviews by Ry!

The Five Year Engagement – 2.5/5 – Comedies are films that are broken down into many subsections.  They can be spoofs, dark, slapstick, drama filled or romantic.  Some comedies, at times, are really hard to place in a sub category sometimes.  A movie like this is one that can’t precisely be put into one category.  This is because of the involvement of the characters, story and direction.  You can’t really put into one category.  Another factor that is greatly affecting this film is its length.  In most reviews I have done, I never ever really mention movie length.  This is because the length of the film it hasn’t really been a factor, good or bad.  For this movie in particular, it does become a factor.  The Five Year Engagement is a film that dances around the genre comedy, as well as draws out beyond its time, becoming nothing that is really entertaining or dull.  In this film, you are witness to a real life journey, and you’ll either feel happy, sad or glad by the end. In this is a film with a lot of promise, but just comes off as another entertaining comedy that was a little too long and hard to define.

This movie follows the trials and tribulations of one couple’s journey to a wedding.  One year after they met each other at a new years eve party, Tom (Jason Segel) proposes to his girlfriend Violet (Emily Blunt).  While they do have a planned wedding, unexpected circumstances and unforeseen tragic and happy events happen along the way, as their ‘walk down the aisle’ takes longer than both expected it to be.  For a movie of comedic elements, both the main characters are flawless and complimentary to each other.  Jason Segel and Emily Blunt do a wonderful job as the couple, and you feel as if they are truly in love.  They fight through all this with heart for each other, even when things go wrong.  The comedy is priceless, and when the heartfelt moments become raw, you feel it in these two.  For the rest of the cast, it was either strong or inconsistent.  For the most part, when it comes to each family of the suspected bride and groom, they are funny and strong at certain times throughout the movie.  There are some standouts within the group of family/friends.  You have Segal’s best friend Alex (Chris Pratt), who is funny as hell when on screen.  This is a blessing and a curse at the same time.  This is the feeling because with the comedy he provides, it adds a layer of wanting it to be this strong when the movie drags.  For Emily Blunt’s sister (Alison Brie) the compliment to the story and the main character is just as strong as Alex, and it also becomes the same blessing/curse scenario as Alex.  For the rest of the cast, you will see people you will notice (Kevin Hart, Rhys Ifans) but mostly, they acting is stale and witless.  These characters act more like plot devices used to help mold the length of the engagement.  Nothing else can be said for these characters that can make them stand out.

The direction of the film felt very lacking.  It is a comedy in its own form, but the movie takes a very long time to build.  As I said in the beginning, the length of the film becomes prevalent when it shouldn’t be.  I feel that this should be brought to the forefront because the movie will drag for long periods in the movie.  You tend to start to think of movie length when it drags, and this distraction takes away from what is happening in the movie.  You feel as if this movie should have been better paced between the comedic elements and dramatic monologues between Segel and Blunt.  When the film doesn’t drag, it is strong to its comical roots.  The reliability of being funny is in its timing by both the actors/actresses’ involved and setup of certain scenes.  When it is funny, the movie is really hysterical.  You will probably burst to tears at times because it is that funny.  For this magic that does happen, you wish that when it does slow down, the drama can be just as strong.  The disjointing between the strong and low points makes waiting for something to happen hurts the movie experience.

With no mention to cinematography and score, this film is a delightful but mostly disappointing treat of a comedy.  For some parts of the film, it does entertain with the premise of being a five year engagement.  The hijinx and mishaps that happen are hilarious and will bring you to tears.  When the film drags, the time becomes a factor, and you do feel at parts you want the film to end.  I’d recommend this movie for a rental, but nothing more than that.

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