News Taffy

Hey guys. I have sad news. This is my next to last blog. My internship is coming to an end and sadly I must move on, but I’ll save all the really sappy words for next week. This week it’s all about the movie. This week I saw The Five-Year Engagement by myself, which was kind of sad, but that’s the life of a single girl I guess. Everybody else at the movie (there were only 12 people there) was in a couple. Anyway, it doesn’t matter because single or not I love the movies, so let me give you the low down on this one.

In The Five-Year Engagement, Tom (Jason Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt) have been dating for a year and on New Year’s Eve Tom finally asks her to marry him. The proposal, a lot like their relationship, has a few hiccups, but nevertheless she accepts and they begin planning their wedding. While the wedding planning is moving along, Violet is expecting to get a job offer from Stanford, but gets one from the University of Michigan instead. This creates a small problem since she and Tom live in San Francisco where he is a sous chef at a popular restaurant and taking a job offer in Michigan would mean putting off their wedding plans for two years, but they decide to do it anyway. I’m pretty sure you can guess how this is going to go. She settles in to her post-doctorate psychology position and he ends up working at a diner with an eclectic staff and takes up hunting because what else do you do. Their family members pressure them to go ahead and get married, but life has a way of getting in the way when you try to makes plans and that’s what ultimately causes the most problems for these two. Violet’s sister gets pregnant by Tom’s best friend and they get a quickie marriage and then the grandparents start dying as if to say if you don’t hurry up and get married there won’t be anybody else left to come when you do.

After a couple years, Violet gets an indefinite extension and it becomes clear with Tom’s beard growth and constant treks to the woods to hunt that he is more than unhappy. One night at a bar, Violet is with colleagues venting about her relationship to her professor and after one too many they kiss. Violet regrets it immediately and rushes home to tell Tom that she wants to move forward with the wedding plans. Everything is going well until Violet finally decides to tell Tom that she and her professor kissed. Things go downhill real fast after that. There is a tragic rehearsal dinner that involves Tom chasing the professor, then Tom almost hooks up with a co-worker and then he loses a toe. That all sounds really crazy, but you have to see it for yourself to know how ridiculous and hilarious all that really is, believe me it’s worth it.

It should be no surprise then that after the loss of a toe; the wedding can’t go on, so Tom and Violet decide to end their engagement. Tom moves back to San Francisco and Violet stays in Michigan and both move on in their lives, but does the relationship end there…well wouldn’t you like to know. Of course by now you know I won’t tell you, but you should know that I really liked it.

Jason and Emily have perfect on-screen chemistry and if she wasn’t already married to John Krasinski then I would suggest that she give Mr. Segel a shot. They are absolutely hilarious together and their portrayal of a couple trying to figure out the balance between work and life is probably one of the most honest and realistic that I’ve ever seen. I give it a 7.5. It did run a little long at just over two hours and there were some parts that probably could have been left out, but it was a fun and easy movie to watch. Perfect for a single person to watch by themselves or a couple.

In case you’re looking for another romantic comedy to make you laugh, Think Like A Man is also a great choice. I give it an 8.5 because Kevin Hart, who is also in The Five-Year Engagement, is freakin’ hilarious! I have also heard good things about The Raven, so it looks like you can’t go wrong this week.

Next week it’s all about The Avengers! Captain America here I come.

Until next time,
Raven