The Last Five Years

Good movie!

source: The Last Five Years

This movie came on TV tonight; the first off putting signal was seeing Anna Kendrick's name come up in the title roll ,after all, she does top the most annoying actors list quite often. So I thought , what the heck, she was pretty good in that movie with Ryan Reynolds where she has her head placed in the fridge, "The Voices' , but within 10 seconds her voice was so bad I had to reduce the volume level to like 10%. Awful tone, screechy high pitch key, and close to being completely out of tune at times, and that opening song sounded like a thousand others, so ripped off, I am not sure how the copyright lawyers didn't jump on it. Cant really comment on the rest of the movie. Sorry, just couldn't handle it, the awful vocals, and the "woe is me whiny entitlement' attitude of the the next 8 minutes or so.

The songs are at least OK, and musically quite rich - rich enough to bring me to the VOD. The leads are fine, but not (in my opinion) quite as good as some critics. Both voices sound a bit strident to me. But the movie is one of the more unpleasant experiences I've had with a musical. Why? Because in my view, it's an absolutely abysmal premise for a romance. I noted 'spoiler' in my heading, but it really isn't much of one - every review will tell you of the narrative device in the plot, which is that the woman tells the tale in reverse, the man in conventional chronological order. Since the first song ("I'm Still Hurting", one of the better ones) is the break-up song, the audience knows from the get go that it didn't work out - and then has to endure 90 minutes of stops and starts, dashed hope and expectations, missed communications, etc. Who needs this? Love stories are about hope, I blush to say - and when you leave none in the mix, you are setting up the story to fail, no matter how gifted the composer or performers. And that's what happens. It's just a depressing, downbeat experience, and no way to put it any differently.

"I'm still hurting." Cathy Hiatt (Kendrick) is an aspiring actress and her boyfriend Jamie Wellerstein (Jordan) is an aspiring writer. They begin the relationship full of hope and love but when Jamie becomes successful things begin to change. I will open by saying that unlike some people I am in the middle when it comes to musicals. Some people will hear the word and instantly want to either watch it regardless of what it is about or run and hide from the music. They way I view them is that as long as the story is good I will watch. The singing in this was great, but the songs and the whole story to me was just too boring to get into. This is one of the most depressing movies I have seen in a while but besides that I just struggled to get into this and by the end I still really had no connection to the movie. All that said, there will be some people that really enjoy this and will absolutely love it. As for me, it was a big struggle to get through. Overall, all I can say is that this was just not a movie for me at all. I give it a C.

While the idea of telling the story of a relationship out of order isn't half as a quirky or original idea as the interviews with the cast on the DVD would lead you to believe there is still a lot to like about this modern musical adapted to film by the director of PS I Love You. The main selling point/draw is Anna Kendrick. Not only is she very pretty and funny, but she's also a good singer, who shines in every number. Her male counterpart was less engaging, but to be fair, when faced with Kendrick, I think anyone would come off second best. I'm not saying this is the best musical of all time, or even of the last few years, but it has its moments if you're in the musical mood.

I have seen Anna Kendrick in several movies and I actually like her. But to my ear she is terribly miscast here as Cathy Hiatt if the intent was to have a really good singer. On the other hand if she was cast to mirror her character, i.e. a singer who never gets past the auditions, then perhaps she was perfectly cast. Still her full singing voice has a very annoying quality to it and I simply had to turn the volume way down in my home theater during her solo songs, that is how annoying I found her voice. She plays a young aspiring stage actress from Ohio who meets a young aspiring writer in New York. They fall in love, they get married, but they are going in opposite directions. he is becoming successful, she cannot get past the auditions. She becomes bitter, he tries to cheer her up, they argue, their 5 years together were interesting but not lasting. Corpus Christi native Jeremy Jordan is quite a revelation as Jamie Wellerstein, her lover and husband. His acting and singing were both very good and very appropriate. While there are a few other characters these are the only two who sing and really the only two who matter.

I saw "Up in the Air" and I thought, that Anna Kendrick is a cute kid and, wow, Oscar nomination I guess she is up-and-coming. I didn't notice much about her until, in 2014, when I accidentally saw "Pitch Perfect" and I enjoyed that movie a lot. I noticed her again because of her singing and I fell for her then. I realized that she is an unique talent; she can act, she's wonderful and very funny, and she sings like an angel. I became a fan. When I heard about Anna Kendrick doing this musical, "The Last Five Years", I was looking forward too. Even more so, after seeing her in "Into the Woods". Anna Kendrick doesn't disappoint because she is the star of this film. Jeremy Jordan was great and held his own. But, Anna's portrayal of Cathy is amazing and you'll end up falling for her. My heart ended up aching for Cathy because of Anna. See this musical and you won't be disappointed. The movie will tug at your heart strings.

You know, the one negative review I read here was that Anna Kendrick was awful. I would like to end those rumors now and say that only in the first song does she kinda suck. Even then it was beautifully acted: just painful to listen to. The only other reason I had to dock a star is that if you don't already know the general premise (she tells it backwards, he tells it forwards), you're screwed. There isn't a more eloquent way to put that. Besides that, this movie is perfect. Miss Kendrick has a very sweet voice that she (usually) knows how to use well, and Jeremy Jordan has one of the most beautiful tenors in the universe. They are both amazing actors, and they let it show. Composer Jason Robert Brown has given us this artwork of a score with whip smart lyrics to match. They take these songs and do what they can't do on stage, mostly to a hilarious effect. As long as you only know to mute the TV during "Still Hurting" (maybe even put Sherie Rene Scott's version on instead?) and the general premise, you're in for a great show.

I really liked the way the story lines were a reverse parallel, with one character starting at the end and working backwards, and the other starting at the beginning and going forwards until they converged. I liked the way the plot didn't go with the usual romantic clichés, but added some complexity to what could have been just another boy meets girl story. The music wasn't overly memorable, but there was a clever catchy quality to the lyrics much of the time, and the tunes were sufficiently serviceable to not detract. BUT...why oh why do directors use such fakey lip synching? I really think it would be far better to use live singing, even with an occasional flaw (as, for example, was done with Les Miserables, which took real guts given the scope of that film!) I understand that the actors did at least do their own singing, but still, the lip sync makes the inherently unlikely format of a musical frequently seem silly--and I am actually a big fan of the old, classic musicals like The Sound of Music, etc. Also, it was so obvious that they were not actually singing at those moments, because you HAVE GOT TO OPEN YOUR MOUTH to make those sounds! Finally, and this may just be a personal (lack of) preference, but I found Anna Kendrick's voice to often have an unpleasant, fingernails-on-chalkboard edge to it.