My Review of The Five-Year Engagement: The Topping on the Wedding Cake

The Five-Year Engagement. Could be a fun movie, right? i haven't seen a chick flick in such a long time. I might as well check it out...

I hadn't expected to see The Five-Year Engagement, but it happened to be playing at an inexpensive theater near my house. At first, I had trouble choosing between seeing this movie and seeing Dark Shadows, a film in which Johnny Depp plays a vampire waking up in the 70s.
You might wonder why I decided to see any movie instead of one that starred Johnny Depp, but The Five-Year Engagement was rated R, and as a 17 year old, I was excited to see a rated R movie in theaters without my parents. 
Besides, the movie seemed worth watching. Its previews were funny, and when I compared its trailer to the trailer for Dark Shadows, this movie’s trailer seemed funnier. No offence to Tim Burton and Johnny Depp (both of whom I love dearly), but I could use something different.
And so that's how I ended up watching a romantic comedy about two people who somehow managed to remain engaged for five years without either marrying or breaking up.
The movie centers on the lives of two fiancés who are madly in love with each other, but who struggle to stay together for various reasons.
This couple is played by none other than Jason Segel, famous for his role on “How I Met Your Mother” and Emily Blunt, who appears in movies such as “The Devil Wears Prada”. Both actors perform their roles adequately. I could definitely feel the chemistry between the two, which is essential for a romance movie. 

Jason Segel  (not really) working the bunny suit. 

The Five-Year Engagement is a typical slice-of-life comedy. While most of the movie was fairly predictable, there were a few unique moments. For example, it was entertaining to see Jason Segel's character, Tom Solomon, don a bunny suit not once, but several times during the movie. And even I was shocked when a young girl shot an arrow into the leg of Emily Blunt’s character, Violet, and when Rhys Ilfans did super cool ninja-like jumps during a chase scene. However, my favorite part of the movie by far was when Tom's brother (played by Chris Pratt) sang a beautiful song in Spanish to his new wife (played by Alison Brie). While no other scenes stood out as particularly interesting, the movie portrayed scenarios that could occur during anyone’s life and wrapped it all up in a beautiful happy ending. *spoiler alert* They finally get married at the end. 

I want my hubby to sing me this at my wedding.

the Proposal :)

My biggest complaint about the movie is that it had too many unneeded scenes. The movie is over two hours long, so it was hard to sit through scenes that added nothing to the plot and had little comedic affect.
For example, I did not need to see Jason Segel and Dakota Johnson have sex in about six different positions for ten minutes. I'm sure this scene was supposed to be comedic, and maybe I'm just not old enough to understand the humor, but it was a very painful ten minutes. I mean they could have at least replaced Segel with a super attractive stunt double during that part... just saying.
Even though the movie had several unnecessary scenes, it did manage to fit in all of the classic elements of a romantic comedy. The girl cheats on the boy; the boy cheats on the girl; they get back together. They both have to make unfavorable sacrifices to be together. Hmm… where have I seen that before? Oh yeah, everywhere.
The movie was a standard chick-flick, but I must admit that it was adorable. I liked the moral of the story: while some believe that people only have one soul mate that they are destined to be with, this movie illustrated that people can have successful relationships with multiple people, they just have to keep their minds open and find someone who is willing to make it work. 
I would recommend this movie to people who enjoyed movies like Bridesmaids or other wedding movies.
Thank you Mirichan for the edit.