The Last Five Years (2014)
1:18 PM
There are Two Sides to Every Love Story
The Last Five Years is directed by Richard LaGravenese (P.S I Love You, Beautiful Creatures) and stars Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect, Into the Woods) and Jeremy Jordan (Smash, Joyful Noise). "A struggling actress and her novelist lover each illustrate the struggle and deconstruction of their love affair". The film never reached the box office heights of Hairspray, Into The Woods, Mamma Mia or Les Miserables - does that mean audiences didn't like it or is it a jem many will find through home media?
I generally like musical adapted films - I thoroughly enjoyed Into the Woods, Hairspray and even Mamma Mia! even though I wasn't too keen on Les Miserables. The Last Five Years is definitely in a much lower league than any of those films - it is like an indie musical. Yes, I do believe people will come across it on home media like myself and enjoy it but they will probably forget about it within a month or so. However, this doesn't hurt what an enjoyable watch this film was.
The Last Five Years was mostly a very uplifting and fun film - I thought the music was catchy which is a must when there is minimal dialogue. Even though the songs were great, what I will say is that you had to be paying very close attention to every song lyric at times to understand where the narrative was going - this meant that The Last Five Years wasn't really a passive watch and you kind of had to concentrate. I have to admit, I did get quite confused with the films narrative at times but more on that later.
I thought the performances from Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan were fantastic - these two had to have a good performance or else the whole film would fall apart as there are literally no other talking characters. I thought both were cast perfectly and it was nice to see Kendrick have a role where she got to show her unhappy side which we haven't really seen before. This was my first encounter of Jeremy Jordan and I think he did a solid job.
So back to those narrative issues, I just found the whole film very messy. Now, I know this is based on a musical so the source material itself may be the reason but I'm guessing its due to the adaptation. From watching the latest Maze Runner, I now 100% believe how inaccurate adaptions can be. The narrative is the biggest problem with this film - one minute the two characters would go from shouting at each other to having a day trip all loved up - not very consecutive! I did like the beginning and end of the film - it is like an endless loop which I thought was pretty clever.
The Last Five Years isn't a film you will remember in 5 weeks let alone 5 years. The performances by Kendrick and Jordan are fantastic and really help to create the charm of the movie. The songs are catchy but the goodness is let down by a very messy narrative. However, I did enjoy The Last Five Years - it was nice to see a film from a mainstream genre go quite niche.
3.25 STARS
C+
What did you think of THE LAST FIVE YEARS? Will you remember it? - COMMENT BELOW
See You Soon!
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