Written by Jason Segel and Nick Stoller, who also directed the movie, The Five Year Engagement should be the movie that makes you want to laugh so loud that your body will breakdown from all the shaking going on. Between the two of them we’ve seen plenty of brilliantly written movies over the years – Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Muppetts, Fun with Dick and Jane. Add to that long time Segel fan and friend Judd Apatow as the Producer behind this and other movies such as Bridesmaids, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The 40-Year Old Virgin, and Pineapple Express and you’d think that this would be the recipe for another hit. Yet The Five Year Engagement falls flat and can’t really seem to shake itself out to become the movie we want it to be.
The plot is relatively simple. Tom (Jason Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt) have been dating for a year after meeting on News Year’s Eve. On that very night a year later, Tom and Violet get engaged. However the twist is that they don’t have any plans for their wedding and thus have ups and downs over a five year stretch on their way to the “big day.”
So what could go wrong with this premise? Answer: A lot!
