Susan Granger’s review of “The Five-Year Engagement” (Universal Pictures)
Nicholas Stoller’s comedy revolves around what happens when a couple’s career choices challenge their romantic commitment.
There’s no doubt that Tom Solomon (Jason Segel) and Violet Barnes (Emily Blunt) are in love. They’ve been inseparable since meeting at a New Year’s Eve costume party. When he proposes a year later, she accepts with alacrity. Problem is: setting a date for the wedding. He’s a successful sous chef at San Francisco’s upscale Clam Bar and she’s hoping to do graduate study at the University of California. Instead, she has to settle for a two-year post-doctoral research position at the University of Michigan, working with charismatic Professor Winton Childs (Rhys Ifans) as part of his psychology team (Mindy Kaling, Kevin Hart, Randall Park). In a gesture of support for her career, Tom agrees to postpone their wedding and gamely accompany ambitious Violet to the Midwest, where he tries in vain to a chef job in Ann Arbor and ends up making sandwiches at Zingerman’s, a local deli landmark, working with the self-described ‘pickle nerd’(Brian Posehn). Consoled and counseled by Bill (Chris Parnell), a fellow, stay-at-home faculty spouse, Tom gradually turns into a grizzled mountain-man: hunting deer, keeping bees and brewing mead. Meanwhile – with their nuptials perpetually postponed – Tom’s culinary cohort Alex (Chris Pratt) marries Violet’s fertile sister Suzie (Alison Brie) and starts a family, in addition to becoming a successful restaurateur.
Director Nicholas Stoller (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Get Him to the Greek”) co-wrote the contrived, longer-than-necessary script with Jason Segel under the aegis of prolific producer Judd Apatow. Jason Segel and Emily Blunt are an affectionately amiable duo as scene-stealing Chris Pratt delivers comic relief.
Problem is: since Tom and Violet are living together, their lives are already intertwined on all practical and emotional levels. So the wedding ceremony is the only missing link – which is not really enough to justify the leisurely two-hour plus running time.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Five-Year Engagement” is a poignant, savvy 7, delivering a relevant, contemporary commentary about socio-economic conflict.
