THE 5-YEAR ENGAGEMENT


Emily Blunt and Jason Segel star in this romantic comedy about a long-delayed wedding. Jason proposes to Emily, but event after event postpones their wedding. They move from San Francisco to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where Emily gets a post-doc in psychology. Jason, a talented chef, finds himself reduced to making sandwiches in a local bistro. Plenty of predictable problems occur: job frustrations, romantic temptations, etc. And some unpredictable events pop up: Emily being shot with an arrow (or bolt, as Jason insists), Jason chasing a college professor who has ninja powers, etc. There are too many dull patches in this movie (Diane said she could have edited out 20 minutes of unnecessary or unfunny scenes). Too many people lose appendages. Too much use of the F-word. Yet, the on-screen chemistry between Emily Blunt and Jason Segel is compelling and believable. I wish The 5-Year Engagement turned out better. GRADE: B-

19 thoughts on “THE 5-YEAR ENGAGEMENT

  1. Jeff Meyerson

    Too bad, because both are likeable. There is too much lazy scriptwriting in Hollywood. This got rather mixed reviews. The NY Times and Daily News both liked it a lot, but a TV reviewer I saw called it totally unfunny and said he hated it.

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  2. Deb

    This is one of those movies where the trailer turned me off; I felt like I was getting the whole movie and none of it was funny. Perhaps I’m just not young and romantic enough, but I wanted to scream at the TV, “Just go down to City Hall one afternoon and tie the knot already!”

    (And I’m sure Patti will have something to say about the presentation of Michigan as a back-water burg where the only job a trained chef can find is making sandwiches.)

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    1. george Post author

      You touched on two of the big flaws of THE 5-YEAR ENGAGEMENT, Deb. Planning the Perfect Wedding doesn’t take five years. And making Michigan look like the North Pole isn’t funny or accurate.

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    1. george Post author

      THE 5-YEAR ENGAGEMENT had more severed appendages than all the romantic comedies I’ve ever seen put together, Bill. And, in a romantic comedy, losing a finger and a toe is a buzz kill.

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  3. Patti Abbott

    We saw it too and I think we liked it more than you because of Ann Arbor taking such a prominent role. But why the heck, he couldn’t get a better job at one of the many terrific restaurants there is totally bogus. Ann Arbor is a mecca of great food–fancy stuff too. The campus is not like Penn State out in the middle of nowhere. There were a couple very good scenes (the one near the end in particular) but so many stereotypes. And 20 minutes out of it would have helped. Since when are romantic comedies 2 hours long. I give it a 6.5 on my scale. My companions gave it a 7, a 7.5. and a 6.0. The men were strongly swayed by Emily Blunt however.

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    1. george Post author

      I confess I was strongly swayed by Emily Blunt, too, Patti. Diane (a much tougher grader than I am) said she would give THE 5-YEAR ENGAGEMENT a “C.”

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    1. george Post author

      THE 5-YEAR ENGAGEMENT has a wonderful cast and some funny bits (the Elmo and Cookie Monster scene is hilarious), Rick. It could have been a much better movie if the lame scenes were edited out and the funny scenes expanded

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  4. Jeff Meyerson

    Looks like audiences were in agreement with you and Diane rather than the critics who liked it, as it only took in a paltry $11 million this weekend. Next week THE AVENGERS will drive it off the screen.

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  5. Drongo

    Why are so many films unnecessarily long? A lot of them would be more watchable at 90 to 100 minutes in length.

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    1. george Post author

      Poor scripts would be my guess, Drongo. Also, Hollywood has an expectation that a movie is two hours long. Just like publishers expect most novels to be 300-400 pages long.

      Reply

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