"The Five-Year Engagement" : Feels As Long As Its Title

Out on Blu-ray and DVD this week is the new romantic comedy by director Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall). "The Five-Year Engagement" is yet another attempt to make this genre more witty and perhaps a bit more appealing to a wider audience, rather than just the female demographic. There is nothing new here, we all know the ending from the first few scenes; however, the difference here is perhaps how long it takes to get there. I'm not referring to the five years that the plot tries to cover, but the actual length of the film (over 120 minutes) , it feels like an epic drag.

 Starring Jason Segel as Tom, and Emily Blunt as the love of his life Violet. He is a chef and she is an aspiring research psychologist. The film revolves around the trouble life presents to them that keeps forcing the couple to postpone their wedding. Their conflicting career goals, their extremely high expectations to wait till "things are right", and a score of older family members dying over and over throughout the film try to push the story forward. The comedy here is thin and the chemistry is just not there. As the "drama" unfolds it becomes harder to feel any connection between Blunt and Segel. Obviously one is not expecting the reinvention of cinema out of a film like this, but if the premise is of a comedic and touching film I believe it fails.

The movie feels as long as its title. Repetitive and indecisive about its tone, it has a couple semi-memorable moments, but it is for the most part forgettable. Segel feels like a new version of every other character he has played in recent memory, quirky, god guy that just wants to love his girl. It is Emily Blunt perhaps the only one worth notice because she is "ok" in her role and manages to at least make us care for her character for a while in this long, long, long run on the mill movie. If you still must see this, just fast forward to the scene in which Blunt and her onscreen sister (Alison Brie) have a talk impersonating Sesame Street characters, then turn it off, you have seen the funniest scene. Nonetheless the movie is out on Blu-ray and DVD for those of you who are interested. Grade C-