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The Last Five Years
The Last Five Years is the pretentious and dull film version of a Broadway musical that tries to be different and important, but like the recent film version of Dear Evan Hansen, should have stayed onstage where it belongs.
I guess the story is supposed to be a musical recollection of the love affair between a struggling writer named Jamie and a struggling actress named Cathy. Things are OK until Jamie learns someone wants to publish his novel while Cathy returns to a summer stock company every year because she can't get a job anywhere else.
Apparently, this two-person musical was inspired by composer Jason Robert Brown's real-life marriage to an actress named Theresa O'Neill, who after this musical made its premiere, sued her ex-husband. He then turned around and sued her. This should be a red flag as to what a mess this movie is.
The movie opens with Cathy sitting alone in the Brownstone she and Jamie shared singing a song called "Still Hurting", lamenting about how Jamie singlehandedly destroyed their marriage. The story then flashes back five years to before they were married and Jamie was riding high on the publication of his book while Cathy is getting turned down all over Manhattan for roles but finds some solace with a summer stock company in Ohio. But Cathy's performance of "Still Hurting" makes it seem like Jamie was beating her on a daily basis. Then for the rest of the movie, Jamie is portrayed as a saint and Cathy as a jealous nutjob who can't stand her husband's success. And I couldn't figure out why Cathy had a big toothy grin throughout their big break up duet near the end of the story.
Like Dear Evan Hansen, Brown's musical score contains some really gorgeous songs, but they don't fit the story. I did like "Jewish Shiksa", "See I'm Smiling", " I Can Do Better", and "The Next Ten Minutes", but a Christmas ballad about an elderly, Jewish dressmaker was a waste of time for me. I wish a little more attention had been paid to the dubbing of the musical numbers,,,the sound on the audio often sounded a lot different than the shape of the actors' mouths.
Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick both have terrific voices and do their best to make this work, but fronting a two-person movie musical was just a little above their pay grades, not to mention having to work with a story that didn't make a lot of sense. One of the longest 90 minute movies I've ever seen.
The Last Five Years is the pretentious and dull film version of a Broadway musical that tries to be different and important, but like the recent film version of Dear Evan Hansen, should have stayed onstage where it belongs.
I guess the story is supposed to be a musical recollection of the love affair between a struggling writer named Jamie and a struggling actress named Cathy. Things are OK until Jamie learns someone wants to publish his novel while Cathy returns to a summer stock company every year because she can't get a job anywhere else.
Apparently, this two-person musical was inspired by composer Jason Robert Brown's real-life marriage to an actress named Theresa O'Neill, who after this musical made its premiere, sued her ex-husband. He then turned around and sued her. This should be a red flag as to what a mess this movie is.
The movie opens with Cathy sitting alone in the Brownstone she and Jamie shared singing a song called "Still Hurting", lamenting about how Jamie singlehandedly destroyed their marriage. The story then flashes back five years to before they were married and Jamie was riding high on the publication of his book while Cathy is getting turned down all over Manhattan for roles but finds some solace with a summer stock company in Ohio. But Cathy's performance of "Still Hurting" makes it seem like Jamie was beating her on a daily basis. Then for the rest of the movie, Jamie is portrayed as a saint and Cathy as a jealous nutjob who can't stand her husband's success. And I couldn't figure out why Cathy had a big toothy grin throughout their big break up duet near the end of the story.
Like Dear Evan Hansen, Brown's musical score contains some really gorgeous songs, but they don't fit the story. I did like "Jewish Shiksa", "See I'm Smiling", " I Can Do Better", and "The Next Ten Minutes", but a Christmas ballad about an elderly, Jewish dressmaker was a waste of time for me. I wish a little more attention had been paid to the dubbing of the musical numbers,,,the sound on the audio often sounded a lot different than the shape of the actors' mouths.
Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick both have terrific voices and do their best to make this work, but fronting a two-person movie musical was just a little above their pay grades, not to mention having to work with a story that didn't make a lot of sense. One of the longest 90 minute movies I've ever seen.