Normally I’m not into musicals. There has to be something about them that’s either slightly off (like Chicago) or they have to be somehow natural (like Moulin Rouge was natural to me because they were all singers and artists in a nightclub like atmosphere). It’s the everyday musicals that I don’t ever get but I thought somehow my love for Anna Kendrick would make The Last Five Years different.
5 minutes in: Okay, this is good. Good start. I can do this.
20 minutes: This is a lot of singing.
40 minutes: Please stop singing for a little while!
1 hour: If you stopped singing and talked to each other maybe you could work out some of your problems!
1 1/2 hours: The final song was good but by then they were all running together.
I don’t think I would have been big on this one even without the singing. Jamie and Cathy meet, they fall in love, he sells a novel without even blinking (which personally did not endear him to me.) Meanwhile struggling actress Cathy can’t catch a break and it’s pretty easy to know what’s coming for this relationship.
It might have been personal bias but I couldn’t ever connect with Jamie like I did Cathy and Kendrick is just so charming that you really feel for her. She makes you feel Cathy’s struggle. Besides the first and final number none of the music really stood out to me except for some scenes where I thought it overpowered everything else and not in a good way.
Recommend: This is one of those cup of tea movies if you like theatre style musicals you should give this a try. Check out a preview and you’ll probably know if this is your type of movie or not. I like my musicals big, dreamy and over the top so I will be wildly looking forward to finally getting to see Into the Woods soon.
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