Cinco Anos de Noivado

There are risks when romantic comedy is injected with "truth." Too little, and it feels like a desperate attempt to give the film credibility. Too much and it starts to feel uncomfortable as the comedy is buried in what appear to be a string of life lessons. The Five-Year Engagement tries to find a balance between comedy and truth and after a bit over two hours, almost succeeds.

That's not to say the film is bad. It's far from it, especially compared to what usually passes for a romantic comedy these days. Its leads (Emily Blunt and Jason Segel) have a surprising, easy chemistry and director Nicholas Stoller (who co-wrote with Segel) uses the talented supporting cast to add new perspective and layers to what is a pretty straightforward story.

Violet (Blunt) is a post-doctorate student. Tom (Segel) is a rising star of a chef in San Francisco. They get engaged on their first anniversary and while most romantic comedies would end here, The Five-Year Engagement does something that romantic comedies fail to do - showing what happens after the "happy ending." In doing so, we get to see every crack, seam and bump in their relationship, from Tom's resentment at leaving his dream job behind to follow Violet after she receives a fellowship at the University of Michigan, to Violet's increasing frustration at how Tom changes during his relocation.

It's a credit to Segel and Stoller that the situations that arise do so organically and don't feel forced in for shock value, and when things start to deteroriate, we not only see it coming, we solemnly nod because it is inevitable.

The film has issues, though, and they almost capsize the film. The most glaring one is the running time. The film clocks in at a bit over two hours, and you feel every grueling minute of it. The pacing and editing are a near disaster and at times, watching feels more like a chore than a good time. This is partially because the film, while billed as a romantic comedy, is only funny in spurts. The serious 'truths' of being in a relationship take center stage, which is in itself not a bad thing, but in a comedy, it really drags the film down.

The ending is typical rom-com schmaltz, though, as if the filmmakers snapped out of their malaise, thought "hey, aren't we making a comedy?" and wisely ended the film on an acceptably quirky note.

In the end, The Five-Year Engagement is serviceable entertainment, but could have been a lot more had they been able to strike the delicate balance they were trying for.

Daniel FilmPulse.net

The five-year Engagement, starring Emily Blunt and Jason Segel, is a rom-com focusing on the engagement of the two main characters they play. Many happened during the five year period.

The film may get you interested in the first 30 minutes, cause it does have some funny scenes and the regonizable faces of Kevin Hart and Mindy Kaling. As it goes on, you will lose interest in the film just like I did. Many subplots are going on and not every one can keep you interested.

It started to feel long and you will think "Please hurry up and just get married".

So it is basically like a long typical rom-com. Nothing special.

Grade: B-

Longer than it felt and for sure longer than it should have been. Although there were many funny actors there weren't many true jaja moments. For 2hrs all this made me do was chuckle a couple of times but really it was a bit boring... yet I didn't hate it. Kevin Hart needed a better skit or given rein to be his funny self. Brie and Pratt were their funny selves (love their version of such an iconic song:). They were the actual funny parts of the movie. Blunt and Jason were meh. Being the main actors they were definitely were miscast. Jason is a good actor when he has great supporting actors to let his comedy shine. Emily always show's potential to be funny but much like Jason requires supporting help. Overall it's a decent dry comedy.

I went into this film with low expectations. Very rarely do I actually take the time to watch romantic comedies but this one had such an excellent cast that I decided to give it a try. So glad I did. This film is fantastic. It knows when to be smart and it knows when to be serious, and both of these things it pulls off perfectly.

Probably the thing that surprised me the most about this film was the fantastic chemistry between Jason Segal and Emily Blunt. I never would have guessed that they could work so well with each other! Chris Pratt and Alison Brie are also great together. In fact, the whole cast is great. It was very refreshing to see Kevin Hart in a smaller role in which it didn't feel like he was trying the steal the entire scene.

The only reason that I took two stars off my review is because I did feel at times that the pacing was a little bit off. Some of the scenes probably could have been tightened up a bit to make them that much more effective and there may have been a few short scenes that weren't really needed. This is my only real complaint about the film.

Overall, I highly recommend this movie. Though it is quite long for a comedy, it's also totally worth it. "The Five-Year Engagement" has a lot of charm to it and also has a very interesting metaphor tied into the plot. The film has a great story, a great cast, and should make for a great date night movie!

These are just in the first 30 minutes of this piece of crap.

1. There's the "this Korean, that Korean" in buddy's engagement party song 2. What's with the inexplicably mute father's Asian girlfriend? 3. Why does the Asian guy at Michigan have the phoniest accent? 4. There's the Indian guy at restaurant he's applying for, from 40 year old Virgin, who I guess is funny, because he says "fuck" with a Jamaican accent.

Stopped watching this crap after 30 minutes. This is why Hollywood sucks. There are too many white, Jewish guys who have their yarmulkes so far up their privileged Lilly asses, they don't know what the world is really like.