Charming a woman while wearing a pink bunny suit is something only a comedian could pull off. This is exactly what Tom (Jason Segel, “The Muppets”) does when he meets his future wife Violet (Emily Blunt, “The Adjustment Bureau”) at a New Year’s Eve party, and the couple gets engaged exactly one year later.
The two planned to marry soon after their engagement, but due to some interesting and humorous circumstances plus a cross-country move, the engagement becomes more prolonged than they expected.
The couple lived happily together in San Francisco, where Tom was a sous chef at a top-notch restaurant and Violet was waiting for her offer to a post-doctorate psychology assignment at University of California-Berkeley. Yet the offer from Berkeley never comes, while an offer from the University of Michigan does. Tom and Violet are forced to postpone the wedding and move thousands of miles away.
Living in the small college town of Ann Arbor leaves few opportunities for Tom to carry on with his culinary career, and causes friction between the couple. The tension leads to situations that could break the couple apart forever. The realistic scenarios and emotions of the characters make this movie relatable to the viewer.
The most enjoyable part of “The Five-Year Engagement” was the humor the actors brought to the film. While the characters are involved in realistic situations, they manage to bring humor to each scenario. The cast is surprisingly filled with all-star comedians such as Kevin Hart (“Think Like a Man”) and other familiar funny faces like Bill Parnell (“Saturday Night Live”) and Mindy Kaling (“The Office”). While the comedians don’t all have major roles besides Segel of course, they make the viewer smile and say, “Oh, I know who that is!” The connection makes the audience want to keep watching.
There is the little to complain about in this movie. It runs a little over two hours, yet about a half hour could have been cut from the film without ruining anything. Also, the disappointing portions of the movie could really get the viewer down — maybe more than expected — so be prepared for a variety of ups and downs.
