FILM REVIEW The Five-Year Engagement

No surprise in this engagement


Neill O’Neill

‘The Five-Year Engagement’ is a two-hour ‘rom com’ as predictable as all those that have gone before it. However, the subject matter of this movie is likely nonetheless to have romantic spirits across the globe moving through their local box office, even if it is yet another wedding-themed film full of contrived dialogue and old jokes.
While I may not be the most appropriate person to review this picture, I can say that there were moments where it succeeded in bringing laughter to the room. But remembering back to Steve Martin’s ‘Father of the Bride’, there have been countless movies in the intervening years about engagements and marriage and the trials and tribulations of organising and executing the big day. In reality, many of the films on this theme borrow heavily from each other. In essence, we’ve seen most of this before.
In a nutshell, Tom (Jason Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt) meet at a party, enjoy a whirlwind romance and get engaged one year later. While their relationship is blossoming they are, however, in very different places professionally, and when Violet secures a place on a psychology course at The University of Michigan, there are big decisions to be made.
Leaving his job and life in San Francisco, Tom follows Violet half way across America to a new beginning, but finds it extremely hard to adjust to his new surroundings. He is willing to put up with it all only for a couple of years, and for love.
However, predictably, things start to go pear-shaped when external forces contrive to always get in the way of their relationship and their constantly delayed nuptials. What seems like true happiness is first jeopardised when Violet extends her tenure at university, with Tom now very unhappy at his low-paid job and thinking of his career as a rising star of the culinary world in San Francisco, which he left behind.
Next, Violet’s sister gets married and starts a family. As time passes and the conflict between the pair and their wildly varying circumstances seems to grow and grow, the film again goes where all romantic comedies before it have previously ventured, before returning to the original plot – again predictably.
Behind it all there is something uplifting about these films, and some of the moments of humour are original and genuinely funny. That Violet and Tom are in love is never in question. The real guessing game here is whether that love can survive through ever-changing circumstances, and whether Tom’s sanity, and his muted resentment, can be put to one side for the love of his life.
I won’t spoil the film for those who still wish to see it, or for the males out there who will inevitably be dragged to it. Suffice to say there is usually a feel good factor emanating from films in this genre, and ‘The Five-Year Engagement’ doesn’t disappoint in that regard.

Rating 5 out of 10