Thursday, February 21, 2013

The Five-Year Engagement

Year 5, Day 52 - 2/21/13 - Movie #1,353

BEFORE: Linking seemed stalled again - no direct links, but then I found out that Anne Hathaway was in "The Devil Wears Prada" (so far, not on my list) with Emily Blunt (last seen in "The Muppets"), one of tonight's stars.


THE PLOT:  One year after meeting, Tom proposes to his girlfriend, Violet, but unexpected events keep tripping them up as they look to walk down the aisle together.

AFTER:  This film sort of combined elements of the previous two, but in a much better arrangement.  Near the start there were some inappropriate toasts at an engagement party, and I started to worry I'd see something akin to the scene in "Rachel Getting Married".  But the film went in a different direction (actually, a whole bunch of them) and started to more closely resemble "One Day", depicting an on-again, off-again relationship, only with a more humorous tone.

That's right, the emphasis is on the "com" in this rom-com, another slightly-better-than-average joint turned out by the Judd Apatow hit factory.  You can probably guess most of what you need to know (including the ending) from the title - so it comes down to HOW the two people get where they're going, and how twisty the journey is.  Some might feel there were a few too many detours, and maybe a wrong turn or two.

But sweetness wins out over sentimentality, so even though the film isn't perfect, it doesn't need to be.  In fact, that's one of the points made - no person can be perfect, therefore there is no perfect mate, so people should give more credit to the imperfect person they're with.  And even weddings don't need to be perfect, it's more important that they just be.

So people who are waiting for the perfect moment, or the perfect person, or for the person they're with to turn into the perfect person might end up with a very long wait.  You may even find yourself in another part of the world, having followed your spouse to where his or her job is, and have to bide your time there, it happens.  The couple depicted here tries to soldier on, but every time they get close to setting the date or planning the wedding, something happens to prevent it. 

The question then becomes - is it too much?  Are there too many obstacles in the road to the altar?  For me, the answer was "no", but as always, your mileage may vary.

NITPICK POINT: No spoilers, but while I found the ending cute and comedically pleasing, it was also completely unrealistic, with regard to the amount of planning such a situation would require.  I can, however, see a lot of people pointing at the screen and thinking, "Why can't I do THAT?"  Umm, because it would need 8 weeks or more of constant work to set that up, and the people in the film did it all in "off-screen time", presumably just a couple of hours, which is unrealistic.

Also starring Jason Segel (also last seen in "The Muppets"), Chris Pratt (last seen in "Moneyball"), Alison Brie, Rhys Ifans (last seen in "Vanity Fair"), Chris Parnell, Brian Posehn (last seen in "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer"), Mindy Kaling, Dakota Johnson, with cameos from Molly Shannon (last seen in "Marie Antoinette"), Tim Heidecker (last seen in "Bridesmaids"), Jackie Weaver, David Paymer (last seen in "Searching for Bobby Fischer").

RATING: 6 out of 10 venison tacos

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