The writing seems clever on one level – the intertextuality of plots – but the characters are mainly annoying. Especially unbearable is Kathy Baker as Bernadette, who knits a lot and looks smug, but isn’t given a plot thread of her own.
Emily Blunt is probably the best of those in the ensemble cast, but even she is only given trite dialogue.
There’s a lot of gore but very little dramatic tension, partly because you see way too much of the werewolf. No mystery or suspense can survive close-up scenes of a monster that looks slightly ridiculous.
A far better film is American Werewolf in London (1981), in which director John Landis addresses similar subject matter with wit and imagination.
Sisters Rose and Norah (Amy Adams and Emily Blunt) go into business clearing up after suicides and murders. This, in turn, leads them to contemplate their own mother’s suicide and how it has affected their lives and social interactions.
Various sub-plots are expertly woven in, involving their father (Alan Arkin) and other relationships. Especially good is Mary Lynn Rajskub as Lynn, who Norah follows and then befriends after she learns that she too is the daughter of a suicide. (Director Christine Jeffs also directed Sylvia, suggesting that female suicide is a recurring theme in her work.)
The writing is subtle and sophisticated. There’s real warmth in the acting. Amy Adams delivers an incredibly sensitive and nuanced performance. You really feel what she’s feeling because she makes it seem so believable.
It’s gently funny, as well. A real gem.
It’s an intriguing premise but the first half of the film gets a little bogged down in explaining the complicated "rules". It improves in the second half, when farm woman Sara (Emily Blunt) appears as the love interest for the younger of the two Joes. She is also the mother of a boy who will grown up to be an evil future ganglord if the course of events is not disrupted.
It’s best if you don’t ask too many questions about the time travel aspects of the story. There are some exciting moments, but the film didn’t make me care about any of the characters. It was difficult to believe that Joseph Gordon-Levitt would ever become Bruce Willis, so different were the two actors in terms of charisma. Gordon-Levitt seems to have barely any character at all. I'm no fan of Willis, but he does at least bring a basic presence to his scenes.
On the plus side, it’s not every day that you hear Richard and Linda Thompson’s "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" on a soundtrack.
Violet (Emily Blunt) and Tom (Jason Segel) are a happy couple living in San Francisco. They get engaged and hope to marry. But when Violet begins a post-doctorate psychology course at the University of Michigan, the couple move away from their friends and family. Tom’s career as a chef suffers as Violet’s academic prospects improve. This puts strain on their relationship and their wedding is repeatedly delayed.
Emily and – in particular – Alison Brie, who plays her sister Suzie, are pretty good. Segel is less convincing, but then again it may just be that his character’s persistent unease makes him a little uncomfortable to watch.
The Five-Year Engagement starts with Dexys Midnight Runners singing Van Morrison’s “Jackie Wilson Said”, which puts you in a good mood from the beginning. In fact, most of the soundtrack is made up of Van Morrison songs – a smart choice. I was especially pleased to hear his “Sweet Thing”, as it’s not every day an Astral Weeks track gets used in a film.
One continuity point: Violet’s character’s childhood bedroom wall is covered in Wham! posters, but she would have been a baby when Wham! were popular. Did someone overlook this?
Another oddity is a thread of violent humour running through the story. Tom’s boss at the restaurant slices part of her finger off. Violet is shot in the leg by a crossbow. And Tom jumps on a fire hydrant obscured by a snowdrift. I’m not sure why this was introduced, although it does add a sense of “real life”.
While it’s all fairly flimsy and forgettable, it does make you feel better about life for a couple of hours – which is presumably what rom-coms are for.
A fisheries expert (Ewan McGregor) attempts to help a Yemeni sheikh (Amr Waked) with the expensive and improbable task of introducing salmon to the Yemen desert. He’s assisted by the sheikh’s financial adviser (Emily Blunt), whose soldier boyfriend has just gone missing in action. Romance ensues. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s press secretary is keen to exploit the situation for its publicity value.
It’s an odd film. Some of the awkwardness is presumably deliberate because it’s suggested that McGregor’s character has Asperger syndrome, although that’s never really explored. Everything remains thin and surface-level.
Blunt is her usual charming self, seemingly able to do this stuff in her sleep. McGregor exhibits more versatility than usual. The sheik is saintly and one-dimensional. And Kristin Scott Thomas’s brash, pushy character, presumably designed for comic relief, is just annoying.
Overall, it doesn’t really work. The unlikely love story is nice enough but otherwise it’s just a bit weak all round.
Emily Blunt plays an alcoholic divorcee who stares out of a train window and obsesses over two couples she passes. This obsession ultimately implicates her in a murder mystery for which she ends up the prime suspect.
It’s a good idea, but it just doesn’t work. It’s excessively melodramatic, veering on the horror genre at points. Blunt walks around like a zombie, pale, trembling and rather frightening. While that makes sense in the light of her drink problem and the emotional state that caused it, it doesn’t make for a very appealing film and it adds to the ugly aesthetic all round.
The “patchwork” approach to times and events is effective and just about comes together. The related device of only certain parts of the story being recalled owing to booze-induced blackouts also gives it a Hitchcockian dimension, allowing us to piece together what really happened at the same time as Blunt. But these elements are weakened by characters that just don’t convince. The behaviour of the bearded shrink (Édgar Ramírez) seems unlikely, somehow, and other characters’ motivations, such as those of Megan (Haley Bennett) are not fleshed out satisfactorily.
The biggest flaw is this: of the four people she observes, Blunt is more obsessed with a pair of strangers than she is with her own ex and his new partner, who live two doors away. How could that be? She’s oddly oblivious to the interaction between the two couples, which is at the heart of the plot.
But if you are seeking something trashy, gripping and escapist (and often I am), it will certainly keep you entertained.
The remainder of the film details the couple’s quest to be together despite the hugely powerful efforts of these remarkable controllers of destiny. It sounds complicated, but it’s not. You just have to accept certain elements:
• The men of the Bureau can effortlessly travel between locations by opening certain doors that act as inter-dimensional portals.
• These men gain their power by wearing hats.
• Their powers are diminished by the presence of water.
• It’s all overseen by “the Chairman”.
Based on a Philip K. Dick story, the premise is terrific but I knew from the outset that it would be almost impossible to resolve the plot in a satisfactory way. How could anyone live in opposition to such formidable forces of control? Sure enough, the ending did seem a bit of a cop-out, but I can’t see how else it could have concluded.
It works as an exciting thriller with sci-fi and conspiracy-theorist elements. The idea that you can glimpse behind the curtain of reality and see what’s really going on is a hugely appealing one. I loved the electronic “books” that showed the various paths of reality evolving and redrawing themselves in real time.
Damon and Blunt have great chemistry and the film works primarily because the story details their romance – meeting, being separated, coming together again and facing the future as a couple. In fact, Blunt is so charming that I wished there was more of the pair simply chatting, flirting and getting to know each other. This would have made for an entertaining and touching narrative in its own right.
Anthony Mackie is easy to like as Harry Mitchell, the most sympathetic member of the mystery organisation. Terence Stamp is appropriately creepy as Thompson, a senior official of the Bureau.
The film tackles big themes of freewill vs. determinism, and whether there is any higher power looking over us. The Bureau is presented as a God-like force, and this is meant to be sinister. But then the idea of an all-powerful deity able to control everything we do is surely just as alarming, yet this is accepted as normal by millions of people worldwide.
It gives you a lot to think about, even if it ultimately cannot completely deliver on its own brilliance.
