Review #5 | "The Last Five Years" (2014)

A charmingly erotic movie-musical about love and loss in the lives of young adults trying to make it in the world. Based on the musical by Jason Robert Brown, "The Last Five Years" chronicles the relationship of Jamie (Jeremy Jordan) and Cathy (Anna Kendrick). Audiences will become invested in the outcome of Jamie and Cathy thanks to the sporadic timeline of the screenplay. Playing with time, the screenplay takes the audience on an emotional roller coaster of emotion ranging from love, passion, tension, anger, romance, euphoria, depression, and more. Time also becomes a clever visual representation for Cathy, who is running out of time to make her aspirations a reality. On the contrary, Jamie has found professional success as a bestselling author early into their relationship. However, he can't seem to find the time to make their relationship work in conjunction with his career, always saying "I'll be there soon," yet never really getting anywhere.

Clever costuming distinguishes the place in time as well as the status of the relationship. It is clear that costume and set designers worked very closely to establish a color palette for each scene creating easy-to-follow visual cues for the audience.

In any production of "The Last Five Years," the singing will come first and the acting second. Kendrick and Jordan are great at finding a balance, but audience members with a background in acting will be taken out of some scenes when the actors, particularly Kendrick, have to ignore their instincts to kiss each other to allow the other to sing. A sad sacrifice for the performances of two great actors, but they make up for that difficulty in the way of playing with the music later in the film.

An entertaining movie that doesn't take itself too seriously with as many laughs as there is potential for heartbreak.

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"The Last Five Years" is rated PG-13.