What's the story?
Tom (Jason Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt) have been going out for a year and things are going well for the loved-up couple. Realising that he has found the woman of his dreams, Tom decides to ask Violet for her hand in marriage and she accepts.
But their engagement looks set to be put on 'temporary' hold when Violet is offered a well-paid job at the University of Michigan.
With the couple deciding the wedding can wait two measly years, they pack their bags and leave sunny San Francisco for the frozen backwater of Michigan.
As Violet's career goes from strength to strength, Tom struggles to find a job worthy of his talents and there is added pressure when Violet's sister Suzie (Alison Brie) marries Tom's best buddy Alex (Chris Pratt) in a stress-free, faultless whirlwind engagement.
As the years roll by, Tom and Violet's wedding looks as if it's never meant to be...
Any good?
Producer Judd Apatow has been behind some of the most successful comedies in the past decade. When you count up the likes of The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, The Pineapple Express and Bridesmaids (to name but a few), it's easy to see why his name is synonymous with the term ‘bro-mance’.
Apatow produces comedies that are rude, a little crude, funny (obviously) and, most important of all, heart-felt explorations of flawed friendships.
Here, he teams up yet again with Forgetting Sarah Marshall director Nicholas Stoller to bring us a movie that will appeal to all the couples out there – engaged, married or blissfully co-habiting.
Yes, The Five Year Engagement gives us a couple we can relate with – Muppet-man Jason Segel plays a frumpy chef who just wants to settle down and live a quiet life with the woman he loves while Violet is dedicated to her career.
As one excuse to postpone the wedding follows another, we witness a likeable couple struggle to commit to getting one another down the aisle.
Believable
Segel can play the eternal man-child in his sleep and Blunt exudes charisma, expertly flirting her way through the entire movie. But do they make a believable couple?
As you'd expect from your average Judd Apatow movie, there's plenty of naughty humour and more than its fair share of slap-happy gags and, while Segel and Blunt look a picture postcard couple, there are enough witty one-liners and knockabout slapstick here to keep the laughs coming and coming, and that’s as much as we should expect.
Final word
OK, so it's not on the same par as Bridesmaids, but The Five Year Engagement is worthy of a date night at the flicks.
