The Five Year Engagement. Standing outside the cinema, I look up at the over-sized poster pasted on the wall. Two of my favourites Jason Segel and Emily Blunt stare back at me, lounged on a sofa eating from a wedding cake sitting between them. Above their heads a banner reads ‘From the Producers of Bridesmaids’. This is set to be brilliant.
But, 30 minutes into the film and it’s not just a five year engagement between two commitment -phobes with conflicting career aspirations and smug married friends that’s beginning to get tiresome and overly lengthy. It turns out the poster’s metaphorical imagery of a wedding cake coming between them, literally, eventually forcing them to lie back, exhausted and admit defeat, is about as sophisticated as this gets. The Five Year Engagement may be from the producers of ‘Bridesmaids’, but it’s certainly not from the writer.
The basic plot is as follows; Tom (Jason Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt) open the film where others end it – with their engagement. The scene is, naturally, full of jokes but something is making it feel awkward, I think to myself as I sit, one of only three people in the audience, eating my popcorn. Then I realise the problem might be with me. I’m struggling with this new, fashionable trans-Atlantic portrayal of love. The down-to-earth accent of British actress Emily Blunt mixed with the smooth, Hollywood-esque voice of Jason Segel is just not working for me.
Soldiering on though, feeling I must accept that in real life a British psychology postgrad might indeed fall in love with a head chef from San Francisco, I persevere. And I am slightly rewarded for my efforts. Writer and star Jason Segel does make an interesting choice that I think makes this film stand out in the annals of romantic comedies produced, packaged and shipped out from the US, and that is this; he throws off the shackles of conventional plot structure, the usual boy meets girl, boy and girl fall for each other, a problem occurs and they separate, boy overcomes problem and boy and girl get together in time to roll the credits. Instead, Segel gives us twists and turns as Tom and Violet put off their wedding, avoiding commitment and try to work through their problems. It was certainly endearing to see a more realistic portrayal of love post-end-scene-of-standard-rom-com, but does it work? I’m not sure. I think this is a commendable first attempt at something new within a genre. It is fresh and at times is funny, but ultimately, the jokes feel awkward and sometimes predictable and lazy.
Worth seeing on an empty afternoon, but for those of you expecting the next instalment of ‘Bridesmaids’, you might be disappointed.