Collegiate Times

Image: 2012-04-30 23:27:06

“The Five Year Engagement” is not the funniest or most romantic movie ever, but it does provide enough romance and laughter to keep the audience invested in the
story.

Jason Segel and Emily Blunt star as fiances Tom and Violet, who just can’t find the right time to get married. The two get engaged with every intention of being married within the year. Unfortunately, event after event happens, putting roadblocks up on their path to marital bliss.

Segel and Blunt have great chemistry. They play off each other wonderfully and come off as a realistic couple — not just two Hollywood actors shoved together for the sake of a movie.

This was my first time seeing Blunt in a leading role. I’ve seen some of her supporting character roles and always wondered how she would be as the lead lady.

Her acting seems almost effortless as she perfectly embodies the character of Violet. She’s able to portray a range of emotions in just one look. “The Five Year Engagement” is a romantic comedy and unlikely to win Blunt any awards, but I’m very optimistic about her
future.

While I label this as a romantic comedy, I feel like the term has certain connotations with it. Sometimes this specific genre has more people running in the opposite direction than gory horror films termed “torture porn.” 

Although the movie has the same basic skeleton of a romantic comedy, I felt that it had a lot more depth than most. So for the purpose of this review, I will refer to this movie as a “dramedy” — a comedy, drama
mix.

I thought the movie was clever in that it didn’t just switch back between funny scene, serious scene, funny scene and serious scene. Instead, many of the scenes were dramatic, but humorous bits were peppered in throughout. 

Comedy is not the main goal of this movie. The story and characters take the main priority. 

Funny parts are organically worked in, playing off character quirks and flaws. Those who expect to be rolling on the floor in laughter will be disappointed.

Though the plot was solid and the characters were interesting, one thing that bothered me was the length of the movie. It felt like “The Five Year Movie.” Sure, I wanted to see what happened to everyone at the end, but the wait was eternal. Longer is not necessarily better. If the editors hacked 30 to 45 minutes off the movie, I don’t think too much would be lost, and it would still be
decent.

But if you have two hours to spare and you’re in the mood for something lighthearted but not airheaded — like “The Lucky One” — then look no further. Those who are not so fond of romantic movies should probably steer clear. However, there is enough comedy to balance out the love story if you are somehow roped into seeing it.  “The Five Year Engagement” is definitely worth
watching.

A version of this article appeared in the May 1 issue of the Collegiate Times.