“Hey there readers (all three of you)! Long time no see. Urinetown has been in full swing, which has left little time for movies. But now that it’s open and we’re between weekends, I was finally able to escape to the theater. I actually repeated Cabin in the Woods on Mon, and then some fortuitous last minute schedule rearrangements meant I was able to squish in Five Year Engagement yesterday.
On paper, this doesn’t quite seem like my movie. And under normal circumstances, I wouldnt have touched it with a thirty nine and a half foot pole. Factor in Jason Segel, a seal of approval from Judd Apatow, a funny enough trailer, and Bridesmaids comparisons and you’ve got me devoting one of my few and precious nights off to the movie. Unfortunately, it did turn out to be the sap fest that I feared.
I expected a bit more Apatow style humor (even if he was only the producer) but it felt like pure rom com. I wouldnt be so quick to put it in the crap rom com pile because it actually was rather well done. The characters were multi dimensional and relatable. The cast was A-one. It was humorous, though not the no holds barred R rated humor I was hoping for.
The story should have left me bored, and a lot of the times I was kinda on that brink. But I love Jason Segel and Emily Blunt enough that I was truly invested in their characters, so I did want to see how things played out. There was a bit more than generous helping of awkward, which we also may have done without (the whole mountain man downward spiral was a bit much), but the ending more than made up for everything. Yeah, plot wise it was predictable, but the details were creative. I may have left the theater with a bit of a smile escaping thru my thick armor of cynicism.
The Five Year Engagement – \m/ \m/ \n