Pain of Last Five Years Leaves Audiences Feeling Satisfied
In everyone’s life there is that one break
up that devastated us to the core. The
girlfriend that stands you up on Valentine’s Day or the boyfriend that leaves you
through a sincere post-it note. This is
not unique. No matter what the turmoil,
the heartache will one day make great fodder for a story to tell on another
date. This, too, is not unique. How we tell that story and how we cast
ourselves in the tale—that is what defines us.
The film, Last Five Years, written
for the screen and directed by Richard Lagravenese, chronicles a five year
relationship in a unique, albeit confusing, way.
From the very beginning, the story makes
no secret of its end. In fact, that is
partially the point. Like a magic trick performed in reverse and slow motion,
Jamie (Jeremy Jordan) and Kathy (Anna Kendrick) tell their own versions of
their five year relationship. But while
Jamie tells the story in chronological order, from when they first hook up, to
when he says the final “goodbye,” Kathy tells the story in reverse, from the
day they separated to the day they met.
The first scene of the film opens with Kathy desolate and alone in the
couple’s unrealistically affordable New York City apartment, reading a letter
in which Jamie asks for a divorce.
Ms. Kendrick (Pitch Perfect, Into the Woods)
brings her expected sardonic humor to the role and somehow worms her way into
our hearts. Mr. Jordan of TV’s Smash has harder time holding onto the audience’s empathy as the
story unravels. With their mastered
belting voices and witty ad libs, Mr. Jordan and Ms. Kendrick attack the
daunting challenge of signaling the leaps through time to the audience with
very little help.
Screenwriter and director Lagravenese (P.S. I Love You, Freedom Writers) provides few visual cues—a wedding band, a dress
that is complete in one scene but being sewn in the next—that help the audience
acclimate themselves to the timeline.
Unfortunately, the cues take time to appear and, by the time they do,
the audience has gotten lost and confused.
For what he lacks in time travelling
prowess, Lagravenese uses every ounce of the schmaltz that we have seen in his past films to endear Ms. Kendrick
and Mr. Jordan to the audience throughout the film. Lagravenese translates songs, which on stage would
be soliloquies, into a dramatic dialogue where only one person speaks at a
time. Even when the other is singing, the two co-stars are still working their
damnedest to show that they are in this scene by god and will not be over
shadowed.
By far, the music and lyrics are the best
thing of the film. Composer Jason Robert
Brown has created a semi-autobiographical musical that places Jamie, the
character based on himself, in the role of both villain and prince
charming. Unafraid of risky choices,
Brown never sacrifices storytelling to clever composition and yet balances a
very warm and string-filled score with the lyrics that challenge the likes of
Sondheim.
Though some of the pain felt by the
audience is more frustration with trying to sleuth out the chronology of a
scene in the five year relationship, the cast of The Last Five Years reaches out, grabs the audience by the hand,
and says, “Come. See what it was like
for me.” Despite the confusing nature of
the tale, you feel as if a friend—a dear friend like Ms Kendrick or that college
buddy like Mr. Jordan—is telling you their version of the break up that left
them ruined for others.
Title:
The Last Five Years
Release
date: 13 February 2015
Director:
Richard Lagravenese
Writers:
Jason Robert Brown (based on the musical play by), Richard
LaGravenese (screenplay)
Stars:
Anna Kendrick, Jeremy Jordan
Rating:
PG – 13
Category:
Comedy, Musical, Drama, Romance
Run
Time:1h 34min
No comments:
Post a Comment