Big Screen Peter: The Five Year Engagement

The Five Year Engagement brought tears to my eyes. Despite the clunky title, it offered a perfect mix of quirky humor and emotional resonance.

It stars Jason Segel as Tom Solomon, a successful chef in San Francisco. Just one year after meeting his girlfriend Violet (Emily Blunt), he proposes to her. This seeming idyll is thrown off course by a series of personal and professional setbacks, morphing their perfectly scripted future into a trying emotional ordeal.

One would be forgiven for assuming that The Five Year Engagement, like many romantic comedies, eschews realism. And while the movie is in many ways standard issue Hollywood faux-reality, it delves into the tricky territory of amorous relationships with quite a bit of honesty. This dose of reality heightens Tom and Violet's tribulations, creating a deeper register of understanding within the audience.

This understanding is aided greatly by the on-screen chemistry and comedic timing shared by all of the actors involved in the production. With Chris Pratt (Parks & Rec) and Allison Brie (Community), it is a true work of ensemble humor, creating laughs throughout the duration of the movie.

This emotional connection is further cemented by the superb music supervision. The soundtrack is made up entirely of Van Morrison songs, both by the Belfast Cowboy himself and cover versions. Hearing his words and music interplay with the images on screen serves as a gilded reminder of Morrison's songwriting genius. The lilting melodies and prescient lyrics imbue the story of Tom & Violet with an extra layer of poignancy.

It is, in its own way, a backlash against our modern world. From quarterback arm slots to askew tan lines, there is an endless stream of experts and “critics” tearing apart everything and everyone in a search for perfection.

There is always something to nitpick. And this societal compulsion to search for perfection has spilled into the day-to-day lives of many. An expectation of blissful contentment surfaces in romantic endeavors.

This myth is often perpetuated by Hollywood, which is why The Five Year Engagement was so refreshing. At least until it reverted to rom-com form and supplied its own, tear-inducing continuation of that happily ever after mantra of cinematic contentment. If it wasn't so damned appealing, that disingenuous reversion might have mattered to me more.

Even with this ending turn back toward Hollywood norms, The Five Year Engagement was a refreshing and restorative movie. The story of Tom and Violet is universal.  Like the rest of us, they muddle through best they can — imperfect beings striving toward a semblance of perfection with one another.

But most important of all, it's easy to care about them. About their happiness and their well being. The movie ends with a desire for it all to work out. And that's the greatest trick of the movie.