The Five-Year Engagement

The Five Year Engagement

As a preface to this review, I suspect that anyone who held the film Bridesmaids in such low regard, should probably close the tab now, as the film herein doesn't offer anything better. Amazingly the producers of that film also managed to get themselves involved with this particular farce.

When Tom (Jason Segel) proposes to his girlfriend Violet (Emily Blunt), they immediately find their wedding plans scuppered by the realisation that she must take time out in order to progress her career plans. However, as time moves on, the idea of commitment, long-distance difficulties and the appeal of a shoulder to cry on, all start to become too much in this romantic comedy.

With a lead male character like Segel (How I Met Your Mother, The Muppters, and a likeable, perky Brit in Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, The Adjustment Bureau), it seems like a perfect premise. However, the film seemingly tries to make life as difficult for itself as is humanly possible. The nature of the film's structure, naturally, is to extend the story to a five-year length, bringing in obstacles which block the idea of a marriage taking place. At any cost, it seems.

What should be an amusing 90-minute comedy, turns into a two-hour struggle, as the writers seemingly throw all they can in the way of a barely-cohesive script, and as a result, manage to throw away any lingering hope the movie-goer has of ever enjoying what is basically an unfinished, unpolished mess.

The only redeeming feature is that Emily Blunt is involved, though even at two-hours long, there's almost too much of her in a badly written film for one sane person to handle.

3/10