Movie review: The Five Year Engagement

Spoiler alert!

Jason Segal writes a good co-script. This was the first thought that ran through my mind after watching this particular flick. Fans of the popular show “How I Met Your Mother” know him better as Marshall, Aylson Hannigan’s fun loving and insanely devoted TV husband.

In his role as Tom, Segal is equally devoted to his big-screen wife, Violet.

Appropriately played by comic actress Emily Blunt (who often brings her own brand of British humour into her roles), Violet is a very British, and very intellectual, psychologist in pursuit of a doctorate.

You may recall her from The Devil Wears Prada, where she played evil fashion Miranda Priestly’s ‘jilted’ assistant Emily.

The dice start to roll when these seemingly perfect lovers get engaged. Unexpectedly, Emily’s sister Suzie (Alison Brie) meets her husband-to-be at the reception and her wedding bells start ringing while Tom and Violet are still in the “we shall soon get hitched” phase.

Then the delays start to pile up, as Violet gets the chance to pursue a doctorate at Michigan State University, forcing to move away from Los Angeles, giving up his dreams of being a chef in the process. Naturally, the planned wedding also has to take a back seat.

The film’s pivotal moment comes at a work dinner, when a large dog starts licking Tom’s face as he is answering the ‘how did you two meet?’ question.  Despite the jokes and the banter, it’s now clear that she has now gained the upper hand in society — she has a job she cares about and he has sacrificed his dreams of owning his own restaurant.

Instead of confessing his unhappiness, Tom goes for a passive aggressive approach by starting to plan the wedding on his own and also starts developing some fairly humorous quirks. This includes hunting like a ‘real man’ and making wine using fermented honey (I kid you not). It’s a physical transformation as well, and he also starts growing long mutton chop sideburns, in true ‘Southern Man’ style.

A certain “accident” involving a crossbow and a 5-year child leads to their first disagreement, and a case of stale donuts later, Violet finally sees that she has effectively destroyed her man. All these “delays” only provoke the inevitable — the big break up happens and they both head off in different directions.

What follow are new relationships and new realisations. Unlike the planned marriage itself, the humour never takes a back seat and in particular, a talk between the two sisters — an Elmo-voiced Suzie and a Cookie-monster voiced Violet — will have you in stitches. It’s saying something that, despite the couples’ obvious unhappiness, the laughs keep coming. Naturally the ensemble of British accents also help accentuate the humour as well — a very wise move by director and co-writer Nicholar Stoller. Thankfully, this movie also does not stoop to resorting to vulgarity for laughs, an issue that plagues far too many American comedies of late.

So will Tom and Violet finally tie the knot after the five-year wait? You’ll just have to watch and see. All in all, it’s a sweet trip right up until the end.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, September 9^th, 2012.