The Last Five Years (2015)

Very disappointing...

best movie i've ever seen.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The sounds of New York City fill the air as a charming, cream apartment building appears on the screen and the title The Last Five Years is displayed. The words fade along with the city's din and is replaced by the soft touch of a piano. The camera pans up the building until focusing on one particular room. Inside sits Cathy (Anna Kendrick) staring emptily at a letter, hurt clearly etched across her face. This is where the story begins, or rather should I say Cathy and Jamie's (Jeremy Jordan) story ends. The Last Five Years, based on the off-Broadway musical, takes us through the relationship of Cathy, a struggling actress, and Jamie, a rising star in the world of literature, and how they go from a creative power couple to a broken marriage. The Last Five Years is brilliantly and beautifully translated onto screen due to the unique way the story is told with the assistance of lighting and music.Director Richard LaGravenese follows the clever narrative of the play in which Cathy and Jamie tell the story from each of their perspectives almost exclusively in song. What makes the narrative so clever though, is that their sides of the story are told in opposite directions. Cathy works backwards beginning from the failure of their marriage and ending at the start of their love affair. Meanwhile, Jamie tells the story from the start of their relationship and ends with writing the letter that explains he has left. There may be some initial confusion while watching the film, but LaGravenese does his best to add hints of where the two are at in their relationship.One hint is the crafty use of lighting throughout the film. It can be observed that during the rough patches of Cathy and Jamie's relationship, grays and other dark tones are used to emphasize the gloomy, hard times. Then the cinematic color design does a complete one-eighty and vibrant colors are thrown onto the screen. The brightness of the colors reflects their blissful relationship which is flying too close to the sun and the inevitability of being burned is practically tangible. The scene when Cathy and Jamie take a Sunday Drive paints the radiance of their relationship perfectly and is only enhanced with Cathy's upbeat song.Like any musical, songs play an important role in storytelling and the music and lyrics of The Last Five Years, composed by Jason Robert Brown, are no exception. The film begins with the sweet and sad ballad "Still Hurting" flawlessly delivered by Kendrick and ends with the strong, heartwarming yet heartbreaking duet "Goodbye Until Tomorrow / I Could Never Rescue You" performed by Kendrick and Jordan. The rest of the film is filled with a variety of songs, ranging from the haunting "If I Didn't Believe in You," to the comical "A Summer in Ohio," and the fun-loving "I Can Do Better Than That." The tunes are catchy and the lyrics are witty that a movie-goer is guaranteed to have at least one song from the soundtrack stuck in their head for days, especially if they are a musical fanatic. On top of it all, the voices of Kendrick and Jordan are wonderful and mesh so well together during harmonies that the on screen chemistry between the two almost seems real. The music, cinematics, and screenplay are just a few of the many factors that assist in the eloquent translation of The Last Five Years from an off-Broadway musical to the big screen. The combination of these aspects and others take a viewer on the five-year roller-coaster that is Cathy and Jamie's relationship. The back-and-forths, ups and downs, and loop de loops are certain to leave viewers with a case of emotional whiplash as they exit the theater.

One of the best lyrics written for a musical. So emotional from the piano to the lyrics to the story itself and of course the acting from the brilliant Anna Kendrick and amazing Jeremy Jordan. That voice. I cried and watched it several times... and I am still hurting...Lyrics Spoiler below:Favorite Part: "Will you share your life with me (Forever.) For the next ten lifetimes? (Forever, Jamie...) For a million summers 'Til the world explodes, 'Til there's no one left Who has ever known us apart! There are so many dreams I need to see with you... There are so many years I need to be with you... I will never be complete I will never be alive-- I will never change the world Until I do."

Jamie Wellerstein (Jeremy Jordan) and Cathy Hiatt (Anna Kendrick) have ended their marriage five years after they first met. The movie moves back and forth throughout their relationship. They met in Ohio. He's a writer who often goes to NYC for work. The long distance is a struggle. They get married and live in NYC. Meanwhile she's pursuing a Broadway acting career.Anna Kendrick continues to hit it out of the park with her performances. She has the sincerity. Jeremy Jordan isn't quite as compelling by comparison. He's still a perfectly fine performer. As for the confusing timeline mashup, I'm sure it's more compelling on Broadway. Memento comes to mind right away. However Nolan understands that movies are a visual medium and he uses black and white as well to distinguish the two timelines. The visual style is in general secondary in this musical. It's not bad but nothing really stands out.

I hate to be harsh, really, but I love to be sincere.Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan are both great, really, and the film is good… nevertheless, unfortunately, it results hard to like and I am afraid that the reason is the music. As in the purest Opera tradition, this musical is a non-stop singing drama. Melodies, however, are not catching and that's where and why (on my humble opinion) it flops.Without disturbing the masters (Mozart, Verdi… or even Berg), it should be recalled that even Operettas' Authors like Lehar or Leoncavallo built their fortunes on easy to recall, enjoyable tunes. And that writing both the Musical score and the Libretto (as Wagner, most notably, did) usually leads to heavier results.