dananielsen-00085 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.

Reno Rangan Recently I saw a couple of other films starring Anne Kendrick, I was not very impressed with them and so I got the same result for this one as well, even worse. I don't like musicals, especially not the modern ones, well, mostly. This is a short story that comes around 30 minutes, but with those nonsense songs, it became a feature film. Seems a few people liked it, I think they had a reason, but to me it was very boring.There was no any decent performances, all I saw was the film characters singing facing in one direction. Maybe they were looking at the lyrics board. I suggest don't go for it seeking a normal romance-comedy. If you like the musical, you might enjoy it, other than that, I don't see this would satisfy any average guy. So no offense for those who liked it, but this is totally a skippable film the year.3/10

TxMike I have seen Anna Kendrick in several movies and I actually like her. But to my ear she is terribly miscast here as Cathy Hiatt if the intent was to have a really good singer. On the other hand if she was cast to mirror her character, i.e. a singer who never gets past the auditions, then perhaps she was perfectly cast. Still her full singing voice has a very annoying quality to it and I simply had to turn the volume way down in my home theater during her solo songs, that is how annoying I found her voice. She plays a young aspiring stage actress from Ohio who meets a young aspiring writer in New York. They fall in love, they get married, but they are going in opposite directions. he is becoming successful, she cannot get past the auditions. She becomes bitter, he tries to cheer her up, they argue, their 5 years together were interesting but not lasting.Corpus Christi native Jeremy Jordan is quite a revelation as Jamie Wellerstein, her lover and husband. His acting and singing were both very good and very appropriate. While there are a few other characters these are the only two who sing and really the only two who matter.

kurokotsu The Last Five Years is a sequel musical, coming after Songs for a New World; Which introduces these characters, and builds them up together. Songs for a New World, but, yet, was not given a movie adaptation. The main cast is comprised of two people, Anna Kendrick as Cathy Hiatt, and Jeremy Jordan as Jamie Wellerstein. There is no supporting cast to speak of, instead focused on these two characters. The Last Five Years is, as the title implies, about the last five years of something. In this case, it's a relationship.Anna Kendrick is the newer of the two actors here. She understands the character, a despairing and unsuccessful New York actress. She plays a normal, struggling woman dealing with a, to put it lightly, eccentric boyfriend/husband. Here, her personality is lost at moments, content to merely follow along on the pomp and parade that is her husband's life. There is a bit of a disconnect between them, song-wise. In the moments she is involved in his songs, she doesn't interact much. Part of this can be blamed on the character itself, but part is also in the emotions conveyed with lines, as well as a lack of the emotional conviction that would be expected of one in her circumstance.Her costar, Jeremy Jordan of Smash fame, does far better in his role. He takes cues from the original actor, it shows in his mannerisms and the odd voices he does. He can do the egomaniac writer well, he lives for such a big role and it's obvious. He flows between the varying emotional states and moods of the role, and it feels genuine. There's not much to be said about him, other than that it's a solid performance from a solid actor.The staging and editing is, as to be expected, quite good. One thing I have to bring up is the almost surreal attitude of the movie. In the beginning, we have scenes such as a choreographed dance number on a New York street, and a seemingly endless black hallway of ex- girlfriends. Later, when they continue on the worse aspects of the relationship, all traces of that are gone. It becomes very standard, almost, and upsets the tone in a way that may not have been intentional. This, combined with the use of saturation to differentiate the scenes, with emerald green grass in one moment and a nearly grey apartment the next, causes a disconnect within the movie itself. It feels disjointed in multiple ways, due to all of the tonal and artistic shifts.The original writer was involved in the creation, as was the initial female lead who kept the pace going from behind the scenes. The biggest issue is an understanding of pacing, given how the source material bounces around. The storytelling is meant to be opposed. The woman, Cathy, her story is started at the end of the relationship. It rewinds, every other songs, to the very beginning of their relationship over the course of the movie. The male lead, Jamie, his story starts at the beginning. With his relationship to her, and then following to the conclusion we already know from her story. The two don't share songs except for brief moments, usually. They share screen time, but nothing else. The last song, as he says goodbye and she meets him, is one of two times they both sing in the same song. The other time is right smack dab in the middle of the movie, where he proposes to her. As such, it is very difficult to get a feel for their chemistry. It causes issues with knowing where exactly you're at, relying on the musical narrative with no outside aid.Overall, it's a solidly average movie. Not perfect, not horrid. The chemistry they share, for how hard it can be to measure, is the best thing holding it together, followed by Jeremy Jordan's portrayal of his character. I can recommend seeing it, if only to experience the story and the different attitudes present throughout. You can laugh and cry and feel the movie tug at your heartstrings when it wants to, which is the most you can ask for from any musical.