The Five-Year Engagement

Overview

Some couples are content to stay engaged for years; others feel they are in limbo until the Big Day officially signals the start of the rest of their lives. Tom (Jason Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt) are in the latter camp, and they make some not-so-wise decisions while their attempts to set the right date stretch out to five years.

They're initially waylaid when psych academic Violet lands a post-doc at an interstate university. Tom, a sous chef at a trendy San Francisco restaurant, contends he can do his job anywhere, but he doesn't count on the stunted restaurant scene in Ann Arbor, Michigan that means he can only get a job in a sandwich shop. Between that, the grey weather and his new friendships with downtrodden "faculty husbands", he's not happy. So when Violet's position gets extended beyond the initial two years, it puts even more pressure on the couple, and the constant prodding from their family and friends (including local hero Jackie Weaver as Violet's mother and Community and Mad Men's Alison Brie as her sister) to tie the knot isn't necessarily helping.

Co-written by Segel (who also wrote The Muppets) and director Nicholas Stoller, The Five Year Engagement holds a lot of promise. It's a romantic comedy where the couple have a genuine, sweet, off-in-their-own-world connection, and both lead characters have complex lives that hinge on more than just their romantic relationship for satisfaction. Their obstacles are real ones, not the confected kinds usually used to keep apart a totally obvious pairing (she likes to knit, he runs an American Apparel, etc). Segel and Blunt each bring a sackload of charm, and they also seem to strive for gender equality in their comedic physical injury stakes (both admirably high).

Unfortunately, for all the effort that went into making this feel real, their situation is riddled with inauthenticity. You feel it most keenly in the premise that Tom spends five years descending into disturbing levels of depression while Violet does almost nothing about it. This big chunk of the film is supposed to be funny but is actually horrifying. It's one of the areas where The Five-Year Engagement doesn't obey its own logic or quite find its comedy groove, chugging along at a tittering, offbeat level but trying to throw in hyperactive set-ups borrowed from an American frat movie. It's a shame, because although it's an enjoyable watch, with just a little more ruthlessness editing, this could have been a leader in the genre.