The Five-Year Engagement (2012) * *

Directed by:  Nicholas Stoller

Starring: Jason Segel, Emily Blunt


Like Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), a recent Jason Segel-Nicholas Stoller collaboration, this romantic comedy runs at least 30 minutes too long.    It's a rather unevenly paced comedy with moments of strong laughs mixed in with moments that don't seem to fit.    The leads are appealing and the supporting cast has fun, but The Five-Year Engagement drags on like its title suggests, killing any momentum that was delivered in the early going.

The story is simple enough.    Tom and Violet are a happy San Francisco couple who get engaged on New Year's Eve, one year after they meet at a costume party.    Plans go awry when Violet accepts a position at the University of Michigan.   Tom agrees to put their wedding on hold as they move to Michigan.   Tom was a sous-chef at a chic San Fran restaurant, but can only get a job at a deli in Michigan.   As Violet's career blossoms, Tom becomes depressed because he works at the deli and lives in snowy, cold Ann Arbor.    How depressed?  He grows a beard, takes up hunting, and adds venison to every dish you can think of.   "I have three dead deer in the garage, I can make some more," he says.

Because romantic comedies are what they are, the couple will soon break up, go their separate ways, and then reconcile.   This takes up the last 45 minutes of the film, but a question gnawed at me:  Why couldn't these two get married in Michigan?   I guess because that would be the end of the film and we wouldn't be treated to a scene of Tom chasing his rival through the snowy streets of Ann Arbor or the trials and tribulations of Violet's wonderful career.

I don't know.   Despite a few funny scenes, I couldn't work up much enthusiasm for The Five Year Engagement.   Much like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, it was paced in such a way that I found myself being dragged along to the inevitable conclusion.