The Last Five Years (film)

Plot

Cathy Hiatt (Anna Kendrick) is sitting alone lamenting the end of her marriage ("Still Hurting").

Five years earlier. Jamie Wellerstein (Jeremy Jordan) is an up-and-coming Jewish writer who has just met Cathy. He is overjoyed to be dating outside his Jewish heritage ("Shiksa Goddess").

Cathy and Jamie are in Ohio. It is her birthday and he has come to visit her as she works in community theater there. She is anxious to fix any problems in their marriage but she becomes angry when Jamie tells her he has to go back early to New York. She thinks that he is too fixated on his work and doesnt care about spending time with her enough. ("See Im Smiling").

Jamie is moving in with Cathy. He comments on how lucky he is that everything is going right for him; his book is being published and his life with Cathy seems too good to be true ("Moving Too Fast"). Elsewhere, an older Cathy is making a call to her agent: it seems her career isnt going the way she planned it.

Cathy is attending multiple social functions for Jamies success. She sings about how he ignores her for his writing but she will always be in love with him ("A Part of That").

Jamie and Cathy celebrate their first Christmas. He tells her a new story he has written about an old tailor named Schmuel and he gives her a Christmas present: a watch, promising to support her as she follows her dreams of acting ("The Schmuel Song").

Cathy is in Ohio and Skyping to Jamie. She describes to Jamie her disappointing life in Ohio among her eccentric colleagues ("A Summer in Ohio").

Jamie is sitting with Cathy in Central Park underneath a gazebo. Jamie proposes to her and, for the first time in the film, they sing together ("The Next Ten Minutes"). They get married, exchanging vows to stay together forever.

Jamie is facing temptation from other women, especially now his career as a writer has escalated ("A Miracle Would Happen"). Cathy, meanwhile, is auditioning for the job in New York ("When You Come Home to Me"). She is getting down about the rejection she faces as an actress and complains to Jamie. She realizes she doesnt want to be the girl left behind ("Climbing Uphill").

Jamie is fighting with Cathy, trying to get her to listen to him. He wants to celebrate a book review but Cathy refuses to go out. He accuses her of being unsupportive of his career just because hers is failing. Though his words are harsh, he promises her that he believes in her ("If I Didnt Believe in You").

A younger Cathy is in the car with Jamie, who is going to meet her parents. She tells him about her past relationships and hopes not to end up in a small town life like her friend from high school ("I Can Do Better Than That"). She asks Jamie to move in with her.

Near the end of the relationship, Jamie wakes up beside multiple women, including the book editor, Alise ("Nobody Needs to Know"). He tries to defend his actions and blames Cathy for destroying his privacy and their relationship. Jamie promises not to lie to Alise and tells her, that "I could be in love with someone like you," just as he did to Cathy.

Cathy is ecstatic after her first date with Jamie. She sings goodbye ("Goodbye Until Tomorrow"). She proclaims that she has been waiting for Jamie her whole life. Simultaneously but five years forward, Jamie sits in their shared apartment writing laments over the relationship ("I Could Never Rescue You").

As Cathy waves Jamie "goodbye until tomorrow", Jamie wishes Cathy simply "goodbye". He leaves the apartment, and later that evening, Cathy returns to the apartment, leading to the beginning of the film.

Cast

Musical numbers

The films song numbers follows the musicals, alternating between Cathy and Jamie with a song or two sung by both.

Production

Principal photography began on June 17, 2013 in New York City. The film wrapped on July 16, 2013 in Harlem. It inked foreign distribution deals with countries in Eastern Europe and Asia in August 2014.

Unlike the show, in which the solos are sung in isolation and the viewer must imagine the presence of any other characters in the scene, the scenes in the film directly depict interaction between the two leads and occasionally other people (though still only one character sings in most scenes, as in the play). Betsy Wolfe, who played Cathy in the 2013 Off-Broadway revival, plays the former stripper that Cathy rooms with in Ohio. Composer Brown plays one of the accompanists during Cathys auditions in "Climbing Uphill". Sherie Rene Scott, who originated the role of Cathy in the Off-Broadway production, also appears in one of the audition scenes with her husband Kurt Deutsch.

Release

Radius-TWC announced a February 13, 2015 release date in the United States, simultaneously releasing it in select theatres and on VOD. It was previously set for release in the United Kingdom on December 12, 2014, but was later pushed back to February 6, in line with its US release. Icon Film Distribution then pushed the release date back indefinitely, and they have not yet announced a new date.

Box office

In its opening weekend in North America, the film grossed $42,042, opening in limited release in three theaters. By the end of its run, the film had grossed $145,427 in the domestic box office.

Critical response

The Last Five Years received mixed reviews from critics. Anna Kendricks performance was met with widespread critical acclaim, with many citing it as one of the best performances of her career. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 60% approval rating, based on 84 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The sites critical consensus states, "The Last Five Years hits a few awkward notes in its transition from stage to screen, but its freshness and sincere charm and well-matched stars offer their own rewards." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score, calculated an average score of 60 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

In The Observer, Jonathan Romney found the film to be "an enjoyable anomaly. The Last Five Years is not just a romcom for people who hate romcoms, it’s also a musical – although people who devoutly hate those may not click with its literate wit and knowing, more-bitter-than-sweet poignancy". Less positively, he wrote: "It’s not as cinematically confident as it might be: director Richard LaGravenese isnt always the most imaginative at providing visual settings", before adding, "this does feel like an organic film rather than a show forced into movie glad rags". Romney found the songs to be "unfailingly sharp, though one or two take on clunky rock colourings; even then, they’re only as bad as, say, Billy Joel on one of his better days". He concluded, "It’s a film to bring tears to the eyes of a cynic – in fact, a cynic might relish it more than anyone, since it’s the counterpointing of exuberance with unashamed bleakness that makes The Last Five Years so rich. You may even, just possibly, come out humming the tunes."