Review: ‘The Last Five Years’ Is Another So-Close-Yet-So-Far Movie Musical

By Abby Lass
Managing-Editor of Arts

Let me preface this review by saying that Jason Robert Brown’s “The Last Five Years” is one of my favorite shows of all time.

The show consists of fourteen musical numbers expressing two characters’ reactions as their marriage crumble around them.

“The Last Five Years” is a show that anyone with a taste for contemporary musical theater should listen to and it holds a special place in my heart. With that in mind, I desperately wanted Richard LaGravenese’s film adaption to be good. Unfortunately, I was left somewhat disappointed.

The acting from the two leads, played by Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan is solid, though Kendrick struggles to find herself throughout several songs, and their voices demonstrate a dexterity and passion that convey the raw emotions that this show evokes.

The dialogue that was dispersed throughout the film to try and fill some of the gaps from the stage show (though really, you should be able to figure out what’s going on without it) is generally endearing yet somewhat unmemorable compared to the music, which is modern, witty, and heart-wrenching.

The scenery shows New York City in all the glory of a hipster summer and the costumes are as natural and quirky as the characters themselves.

So what went wrong?

There were two major challenges that the creative team faced when they undertook this film. The first is that not only is there no dialogue in the original show (only several one-sided arguments), but the two main characters only actually interact in one of the fourteen songs.

To give you a sense of what I mean, let’s talk about the 2013 revival starring Betsy Wolfe and Adam Kantor. When I saw the show, it was performed as a concert. This means no costumes or sets, just a pianist and two thoroughly sensational actors, who took turns singing their songs and then sat on a stool upstage while their castmate performed. The only time they ever touched or even made eye contact was during “The Next Ten Minutes”, the song in which Jamie proposes to Cathy. This may sound a bit bizarre, but the structure of this show made this seem like the most natural setting imaginable.

But because you can’t stand on a stage and sing every song to the audience in a film, LaGravenese was forced to put other people into the scenes. Sometimes, as in “If I Didn’t Believe in You”, this decision is heartbreakingly poignant, but more often than not it ends with one of the characters having nothing to do while their partner belts their face off.

This led to some confusion, at least for me, because it was never really clear if they could actually hear their significant other singing to them. Sometimes there were arguments and dialogue intermingled with the singing to clarify that yes, they both know what’s going on, but more often than not the somewhat vapid expressions on their faces make us unsure of whether or not they’re hearing what’s being sung or if they’re frozen in time as the singer has an internal epiphany.

The second major challenge is that this show has an intentionally convoluted timeline. The reason the characters only interact in one song is because time is moving in opposite directions for each of them. While Jamie’s story line goes from the beginning of the relationship to the end, Cathy’s starts after they’ve separated and works back to their first date, only ever overlapping at the proposal. It’s a powerful device and makes for an incredibly stark comparison between the beginning of their romance and the end, but there were moments when I got a little lost, mainly due to the added dialogue.

Maybe I’m nitpicking, but it comes from a place of love. This show is incredibly unique in the sense that, unlike a lot of musical theater that has a heightened sense of drama to keep the plot interesting, the challenges these characters face are painfully real and directly applicable to real life. Yes it’s all in the form of a song, but it’s an incredible story because you can side with either partner in this relationship for a slew of good reasons, but you can’t wholly demonize the other.

Brown has the magnificent talent to show cheating not as infidelity but as a course of action taken by someone who is frustrated and desperately wants to feel loved; to show a lack of support not as a personal slight but as the only way to make your own failures bearable. Brown is able to show us that love is understanding and selfish and painful and does not presume to tell us whether or not all this hardship is worth it in the end.

This movie is solid and handled its uphill battles with grace. I hesitate to say it didn’t live up to its potential, only because movie adaptations of musicals are always difficult, but I will say that it does not do its story justice.

As with so many movie musicals, my advice is this: You’ll have a decent experience if you want to watch the film, but you won’t truly appreciate it until you see the show.