Will You Marry Me? In a Few Years?

Most love stories in the movies either deal with the couple's time spent dating, their marriage or the dating that segues right into matrimony at the film's end.  But what they don't normally show, however, is the time spent during the lovers' engagement.  This is the stressful period for the couple as they make sure that everything is in proper order for their special day.  But for every bit of stress, there is a problem paired with it.

For Tom Solomon (Jason Segel) and Violet Barnes (Emily Blunt), their engagement isn't what's typical in the view of a romantic comedy.  In director Nicholas Stoller's The Five-Year Engagement, he takes these two characters into a state of increasing, and sometimes funny, tension as their marriage keeps getting shoved back to a later date.  It's all about the strain that happens between the proposal and the "I dos."

Tom and Violet's prolonged path down the aisle began when they meet at a New's Year Eve party.  One year later, Tom pops the question, and Violet eagerly accepts.  Shortly after they set a date for their wedding, Violet gets admitted to a post-doctorate psychology program at the University of Michigan.  The two agree to postpone the wedding until Violet finishes with the program.  Later on, her work begins to open-up new opportunities for her, and the wedding keeps getting put on the back-burner.  Now, Tom and Violet have to figure out how to make their engagement work they so can, hopefully, make it to the alter.

Based on his previous comedic works, Jason Segel seems to have a natural connection with anyone he works with.  His pleasant and lovable nice-guy demeanor can win over anyone.  Segal might as well be labeled as a "ladies man" since he has the talent to click with any of his female co-stars, such as in television's How I Met Your Mother, to his films, such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Muppets. He pulls Emily Blunt into the joyful ridiculousness of his personality, and Blunt gleefully follows.  She is as eager as Segel to revel in some doses of slapstick humor and awkward bedroom situations.  It's their effortless ability to work together that saves the movie.

Alison Brie borrows a fine English accent for her role as Violet's sister, Suzie.  They aren't on screen together for much of the film, but they share a hilarious scene in which Suzie tries to convince Violet to go through with their marriage, while both of them use Sesame Street voices to entertain Suzie's daughter.  Jacki Weaver is very entertaining as Violet's pushy mother.  Brian Posehn delivers several laughs as Tom's sometimes-inappropriate boss.

Besides the considerable chemistry between the characters, the screenplay by Nicholas Stoller and Jason Segel is curiously lacking in hilarity beyond that.  Compared with other comedies they have worked on together, such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek, the scenarios displayed aren't as merrily outrageous as those in their other films, and there aren't many memorable one-liners that are worth quoting continuously.  The interaction of the characters is what prevents this film from being an almost rare miss by Stoller and Segel.  The Five-Year Engagement presents how actors can keep a film going, even if the story tends to fall a little flat, like champagne left out at a wedding.

Final grade: B-