The Five-Year Engagement

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Jordan

Another crowd pleasing winner from the gratduate class of Judd Apatow. Jason Segel and
Nicholas Stoller's latest is even more accessible than Forgetting Sarah Marshall but still has an edge over the bland series of romantic comedies being slapped together these days. That mainly comes from the few out of left field moments that no one would expect in a formulaic romantic comedy and a great cast that give these characters enough weight to feel realistic and relatable.

Jason Segel and Emily Blunt are immensely likeable, it's hard not to fall in love with them yourself. And as always they are surrounded by the best cast of supporting characters you could want. Chris Pratt as Segal's brother and Lauren Weedman as his boss were standouts for me but it could have easily been any number of them.

The film opens with the proposal and intriguingly the tale of the meet-cute is spread throughout the film via various flashbacks which works surprisingly well and leads up to the finale nicely to tie everything together.

Once the inevitable roadblocks kick in the film, although enjoyable enough, tends to drag a little. They really make you feel those five years. I was surprised how far off the deep end they were willing to push Segal's characters but he's never been one to shy away from going there (or appearing naked, which he once again does several times in this film).

For a film that plays things so realistically it's a shame they had to push in a few tropes to get to the crowd pleasing ending. They make it work as best they can and it's probably the most naturally progressing plot structure you'll likely to see in a romantic comedy for a long time. 

Still it's hard not to be swayed by the feel goodlyness of it all. Although I think it could use some tightening up in the middle the characters and story works and most importantly, it is actually funny.