For a supposed romantic comedy, The Five-Year Engagement is decidedly unromantic, only periodically funny and overwhelmingly tragic. As much as I love Emily Blunt and her ability to convince me she can fall for anyone, no matter who she’s playing opposite, even she gets lost midway through this film as her prolonged engagement to Jason Segel turns the two of them against one another and we are made to bear witness to the whole thing.
Directed by Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), who also co-wrote with Segel, The Five-Year Engagement centers on Tom (Segel) and Violet (Blunt) and their long journey to the alter. After knowing each other for a year they have decided to tie the knot, but life soon gets in the way of their plans.
While hoping to get a job near their San Francisco home where Tom is an up-and-coming chef, Violet is offered a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan. Without hesitation, Tom says they can delay their wedding by a couple of years. He’ll quit his job, find work in Michigan and afterward they’ll return to San Francisco and their lives can continue on, happily, together.
It goes without saying things don’t work out as planned. Another wedding gets in the way, people die, Tom has a problem finding work he can feel proud of, Violet is excelling, they’re drifting apart, etc. If this stuff didn’t happen this would have been called the six-month engagement, but, as is, certain things must take place.
The first 80 or so minutes of this feature are dedicated to the crumbling foundation of Tom and Violet’s relationship and Tom on a whole for that matter. The result is a film that’s more of a tragedy and far afield of anything comedic. But the film’s collapse along with Violet and Tom’s relationship is momentarily delayed, thanks in large part to a few moments of well handled honesty, revealing a lot of truth about relationships.
One scene in particular captured a true slice of relationship reality as the two lay awake late one night arguing, both doing their best not to hurt the one they love , while at the same time wanting to be heard. However, these moments of real-life relationship issues only cloud the film’s intentions. Is it supposed to be funny? Is it supposed to be dramatic? Is it supposed to be tragic? Can it possibly be trying for all three… unsuccessfully?
The story begins like any other sweet romantic comedy with the engagement of our two leads, the introduction of a weird, but funny, friend and co-worker (a scene-stealing Chris Pratt), the comedic introduction of Violet’s impulse-driven sister played by “Mad Men” star Alison Brie (another scene stealer), the wacky family and everything else you’d expect from a film geared toward making you laugh with a dose of sentimentality tossed in to tickle your emotions.
When Tom and Violet move to Michigan the party continues with Rhys Ifans playing the head of Violet’s group and the likes of Kevin Hart, Mindy Kaling and Randall Park rounding out the group. All funny people. It fits. It makes sense. Then, the drama hits and the comedy leaks out of this thing like water down a storm drain. The film becomes so depressing anything that may otherwise be funny just falls flat and with the final 45 minutes dedicated to every obvious turn the story could possibly take before it once again becomes a bubbly rom-com once again.
After I lost my feel for this film about 30-or-so minutes in I just couldn’t regain it. Maybe that’s my own fault. Maybe I just can’t find the humor in the sad depression of one person that has given up their dream and retreated into a shell of their former self and another that puts work before everything only to realize balance is needed. There may be truth in The Five-Year Engagement to go along with the comedy, but the way they are mixed was like oil and water and by the end the resulting sludge wasn’t anything I was interested in watching.
