This week the heat team grabbed their popcorn and Minstrels and headed to the pictures to watch the three biggest releases in Moviesville this week - Five-Year Engagement; starring Jason Segel and Emily Blunt, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter; starring Benjamin Walker and Lay The Favourite; starring Bruce Willis.
Here's what we thought:
The Five-Year Engagement
Starring: Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Chris Pratt, Rhys Ifans
Director: Nicholas Stoller (CERT 15, 124 minutes)
The plot: Fresh from the Judd Apatow production line of cheeky comedies comes this latest from writer/director Stoller and writer/star Segel, who previously collaborated on the Russell Brand hit Forgetting Sarah Marshall. This time, Segel plays a schlubby chef living it up in San Francisco with his Brit girlfriend (Blunt). After a year of blissful dating, he proposes to her, but their wedding plans are scuppered when she needs to move to the chilly Midwest to further her academic career. He dutifully follows her to Michigan, but the nuptials keep getting delayed…
What’s right with it? The cast – especially Blunt, in hugely likeable form, sparring with Segel who plays the same loveable doof he’s perfected in previous films. They get great support from Ifans as a charming show-off of a college professor who has an eye for Blunt, and Pratt as Segel’s best mate. The script delivers a couple of memorably rude scenarios (one sex scene is particularly riotous), though the film resonates most effectively during some sweet moments between the lead characters.
What’s wrong with it? The entire premise relies on the quaint idea that this couple really need to tie the knot to make their relationship meaningful, despite the fact they’re fine just living together and having lots of sex. Perhaps mindful of this flawed scenario, the last third of the film ratchets up the jeopardy in their relationship to such an extent it becomes utterly ridiculous.
Verdict: There’s a sharp, winning 90-minute romcom within this flabby two-hour effort, but it still yields enough laughs to make it worth a watch. 3/5 @BoydHilton
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