The Five-Year Engagement

The Five-Year Engagement
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nicholas Stoller
Produced by	Judd Apatow Rodney Rothman Nicholas Stoller
Written by	Jason Segel Nicholas Stoller
Starring	Jason Segel Emily Blunt Chris Pratt Alison Brie
Music by	Michael Andrews
Cinematography	Javier Aguirresarobe
Editing by	William Kerr
Studio	Apatow Productions Relativity Media
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	April 27, 2012 (2012-04-27)
Running time	124 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$30 million
Box office	$53,909,751

The Five-Year Engagement is a 2012 romantic comedy film written, directed, and produced by Nicholas Stoller, starring Jason Segel and Emily Blunt as a couple whose relationship becomes strained when their engagement is continually extended. The film was released in North America on April 27, 2012 and in the United Kingdom on June 22, 2012.

Plot

Tom Solomon (Jason Segel), a sous chef at a fancy restaurant, and Violet Barnes (Emily Blunt), a psychology PhD graduate, are a happy couple in San Francisco who get engaged a year after they began dating. Their nuptials get interrupted when Tom's best friend Alex Eilhauer (Chris Pratt) gets Violet's sister Suzie (Alison Brie) pregnant at Tom and Violet's engagement party and the two marry before Tom and Violet. Their nuptials get further delayed when Violet gets accepted into the University of Michigan's post-doctorate in psychology program which lasts two years. Tom agrees to move with her and delay their wedding until then. However, when he tells his boss, he becomes disheartened when she states she was planning on making him head chef at a new restaurant in town.

In Michigan, Violet settles into her new job nicely under her professor Winton Childs (Rhys Ifans). She bases her main thesis on people opting to eat stale donuts versus waiting for fresh donuts, associating impulse-control problems with personal and professional instability. However, Tom, unable to find a suitable chef's position, ends up working at Zingerman's and taking up hunting. Tom and Violet's nuptials get delayed even further when Winton receives NIH funding with Violet's help, enabling him to extend her program. In the meantime, grandparents of both Tom and Violet die.

As years pass, Tom becomes increasingly disillusioned with his life, which becomes evident to Violet when she sees him eat a stale donut. While at a bar with colleagues, a drunken Violet and Winton kiss each other which Violet immediately regrets. She then visits Tom at work and tells him she wants to plan their wedding now, to which Tom happily agrees. Tom cleans himself up and they make arrangements together. Everything goes well until Violet decides to confess to Tom about kissing Winton. Tom gets disillusioned about their relationship, which reaches a climax when Winton comes to Tom and Violet's rehearsal dinner to try to apologize. Tom refuses his apology and starts chasing Winton away, with Violet trying to catch up, but Winton gets away after Tom insists that he run or fight him. A drunken Tom then runs into one of his Zingerman's co-workers and has the chance to have sex with her, but opts out. He wakes up half-naked in the snow with a frostbitten toe, and he is taken to the hospital where the toe is amputated. Violet visits Tom at the hospital, where they call off their engagement.

Tom moves back to San Francisco and becomes a sous-chef under Alex at the new restaurant, while also starting a relationship with the hostess Audrey (Dakota Johnson). However, Tom's parents and Alex see that Tom is dissatisfied with his new life and motivate him to act upon this. Alex fires him, telling Tom that he is the better chef and should open his own franchise. Tom launches a specialty taco truck. Meanwhile, Violet starts a relationship with Winton and receives an assistant professorship at the university, but becomes upset when she learns she got the job because she was dating Winton rather than her abilities as a researcher and breaks up with Winton.

When Violet's last grandparent dies during the summer, Tom, having broken up with Audrey, shows up at the funeral in England and rekindles his relationship with Violet. They agree to spend the remainder of the summer together in San Francisco, and they begin to reconnect while sharing an apartment and working side-by-side in the taco truck. While driving Violet to the airport, Tom says he can take his food truck to where she is and continue their relationship. Violet then proposes to Tom, stating they'll always have problems together, but that it shouldn't stop them from getting married. Tom reveals the engagement ring he gave her initially, stating he was planning on proposing to her at the airport. They both agree and head to Alamo Square Park where Violet has organized for their family and friends to be waiting for an impromptu wedding where Violet allows Tom to choose between various options for the officiant, clothing and music, and they finally get married.

Cast

• Jason Segel as Tom Solomon
• Emily Blunt as Violet Barnes
• Rhys Ifans as Winton Childs
• Chris Pratt as Alex Eilhauer
• Alison Brie as Suzie Barnes-Eilhauer
• Jacki Weaver as Sylvia Dickerson-Barnes
• Jim Piddock as George Barnes
• David Paymer as Pete Solomon
• Mimi Kennedy as Carol Solomon
• Mindy Kaling as Vaneetha
• Kevin Hart as Doug
• Tim Heidecker as chef
• Brian Posehn as Tarquin
• Chris Parnell as Bill
• Lauren Weedman as Chef Sally
• Tracee Chimo as Margaret
• Dakota Johnson as Audrey
• Randall Park as Ming
• Molly Shannon Cameo

Production

Parts of the movie take place in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and it was filmed there as well as Ypsilanti, Michigan in June 2011.

Release

Box office

The Five-Year Engagement debuted at number 5 in the box office. It grossed $11,157,000 on its first weekend in US and Canada. As of May 20 it has grossed $27,068,000 in U.S. and Canada and $4,700,000 in Australia and New Zealand bringing to a total of $31,768,000. The budget of the movie was $30,000,000. The film was released on 22 June in the UK.

Reception

The Five-Year Engagement has received generally positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 63% of 130 critics gave the movie a positive review. The website's consensus is "While certainly overlong, The Five-Year Engagement benefits from the easy chemistry of its leads and a funny, romantic script with surprising depth and intelligence". Elizabeth Weitzman, a top critic from New York Daily News wrote: "Blunt has never been more relaxed, and she and Segel have a believably warm chemistry".

External links

• Official website
• The Five-Year Engagement at the Internet Movie Database
• The Five-Year Engagement at Box Office Mojo
• The Five-Year Engagement at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Five-Year Engagement at Metacritic