Just a Taste: The Five-Year Engagement

Tom (Jason Segel) asks Violet (Emily Blunt) to marry him on the rooftop of the San Francisco restaurant where Tom is a sou chef. Violet accepts, they’ve been together for a year and all is perfect.  Perfect that is until Violet gets offered a position at Michigan University in the Psychology department and Tom agrees they’ll relocate there for the two years of her program. Only two years turns into five; the passage of time punctuated with the death of yet another grandparent. Their wedding plans continue to be in a state of flux or postponement, and Tom unable to find a decent chef position, goes a little mid-western stir crazy!

Jason Segel is convinced he’s leading man material and also thinks that we want to see him bare his big, meaty body on screen. I don’t agree with him on either of these things; but I do agree he’s funny and even better, he writes funny.  This latest Judd Apatow production is co-written by Segel, directed by, Nicholas Stoller and contains  a lot of original dark humor, physical comedy and laugh out loud moments not shown in the trailer. It will also have you asking the question – would I eat the stale donuts or wait for the fresh? Let’s just say, it’s a “hole” lot of fun!

What’s Not As Pleasing About The Five-Year Engagement: It is a little long, could use a bit of tightening up.  Keven Hart is in it, but his part’s unfunny; they make a big deal about the couple meeting at this make your own super hero costume party – flashbacks are shown of them at the party in a manner that feels as if it’s building to a reveal that will have some bearing on their relationship in the present; but I guess sometimes a flashback is just a flashback.