Emily Blunt (Devil Wears Prada, Sunshine Cleaning) and Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Muppets) co-star in director Nicholas Stoller’s romantic comedy “the Five-Year Engagement” as Violet and Tom, a couple who has decided to get married but can’t decide when.
Just after they get engaged, Violet is offered a job at the University of Michigan. Tom is offered one as a head chef where they currently live, San Francisco, but they decide to put off the wedding and move to Michigan. The ensuing complications and heartache are punctuated by well-placed awkward silences, witty arguments, and strange experiences (Segel looks great in a full-body bunny suit). These moments explore a side of modern romance not touched upon by many “chick flicks” in the past, making it very easy to say “I do”, to this film, even if the characters themselves have trouble doing so.
The movie does a brilliant job of downplaying trashy jokes for a more profound romantic journey. Blunt and Segel engage in very convincing on-screen chemistry, and their bedtime arguments over telling the truth in order to make each other happy make their struggles easy to relate to. Much of the movie follows the tried and true problematic-romance storyline, but sidesteps the usual clichéd script for one that is witty, sublime, and heartfelt. Though love is a theme in mainstream Hollywood that is thoroughly overused, Blunt and Segel manage to leave the viewer with a new idea of how true love can exist.
Above all, “The Five Year Engagement” succeeds in creating a believable story with recurring elements that tie it all together. Seemingly arbitrary things like an experiment with stale donuts and deer hunting become almost like inside jokes with the audience. Quirky side characters such as pickle-loving Tarquin, played by Brian Posehn, keep dramatic moments from being overbearing.
Just like Violet and Tom’s relationship, the quality of the movie does experience a few hiccups. Its attempt to constantly provide the viewer with comedy might at times seem a little offensive. In addition, its 124 minute running time at times seems to drag on as slowly as the five years of engagement itself.
For the average fan of romantic comedies, “The Five Year Engagement” is worth watching in theaters. It’s not quite a chick flick and definitely not a tearjerker, but it has all the parts of a good love story as well as some truly hysterical moments. Although a five-year engagement may seem like torture, at times Blunt and Segel make it feel like the most fun time you could ever be having.
