10s Movie Review - The Last Five Years

Director: Richard LaGravenese
Genre: Musical/ Drama/ Romance
Runtime: 94 minutes
Year: 2014
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Jeremy Jordan

Description: Struggling actress Cathy (Anna Kendrick) and her novelist lover Jamie (Jeremy Jordan) each illustrate the struggle and deconstruction of their love affair.

Review: He is a young novelist, she dreams of an acting career. When they first meet, Jamie and Cathy immediately hit it off. But soon cracks appear in their dream marriage. For when the great success comes for Jamie, while Cathy has to make peace with supporting roles, things like temptation, jealousy and mutual misunderstanding start haunting their relationship.
“The Last Five Years” is a musical, where almost every spoken word is sung by the leading characters. As musicals being my guilty pleasure, I was kind of excited about this film. But in the end I was somewhat disappointed.
I didn’t feel for the characters, or at least not for Jamie. I disliked him from the start and didn’t understand why Cathy stayed with him for so long. Because she was clearly the better half of the couple and did more for him than he did for her. And with that, Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan didn’t really have chemistry.
Anna Kendrick is a very good singer and she is definitely the strongest element in this film. As well as het performance, I can’t say anything negative about it. And even while singing, she has a wide spectrum of emotions that she can show. And then there is Jeremy Jordan. A good singer, but not a very good actor. And he is constantly overshadowed by Kendrick.
Although the songs are beautiful and they tell the tale well, they never seem to stick with you. Maybe the opening song, “Still Hurting”, is the best one of the bunch. It immediately sets the tone for the film and warns you that you don’t have to expect a happy ending.
I don’t think it’s a bad movie or musical, but it’s simple the fact that Anna Kendrick is really great and her opponent just isn’t. And the two just don’t have any chemistry, which is extremely important for a movie like this.

Rating: 3 / 5