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| Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick in "The Last Five Years" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
The narrative takes place in New York City and follows the five-year relationship between struggling actress Cathy Hiatt (Anna Kendrick) and rising novelist Jamie Wellerstein (Jeremy Jordan). The segments that are told from Cathy’s viewpoint recount the relationship from the end to the beginning, and the segments that are told from Jamie’s viewpoint go from the beginning of the relationship to the end. Throughout their time together, the young couple face various ups and downs that will test the stability of their relationship.
As Kendrick exemplified in the “Pitch Perfect” film series and the movie adaptation of “Into the Woods,” she has one of the finest singing voices in film today, and “The Last Five Years” is a hallmark of her radiant talent. She displays a dead-inside heartbreak in the film’s opening song, “Still Hurting,” a palpably idealistic outlook for her and Jamie’s relationship when singing “I Can Do Better Than That,” and an uncertainty as to where she stands in the relationship with “A Part of That.” As you hear Cathy sing through all of these emotions, you can feel her pain due to her career not taking off and feeling like she comes second behind Jamie’s career, making her feel like she’s being pushed to the side. It’s all in a performance that’s evidence as to why Kendrick is one of the most welcome of movie presences.
Jordan is compelling as someone who experiences fast success, and soon lets that success go to his head. He shows the uncontainable excitement of having his work recognized in “Moving Too Fast,” the conflict of being faithful to Cathy and being attracted to other girls due to his success in “A Miracle Would Happen,” and his frustration of trying to convince Cathy to be happy for his success with “If I Didn’t Believe In You.” Jordan’s character isn’t the easiest for which to feel sorry, but he brings forth the internal trouble that he experiences as his fame rises and his connection to Cathy becomes tenuous, making his part of the journey as emotional as Cathy’s.
Kendrick and Jordan create wondrous theatricality together, with their voices capturing both the joyousness of falling in love and melancholy of falling out of it. Their chemistry is rock solid, making the audience feel exuberant during the sequences where they experience happiness, and crushed when their relationship is falling apart. Out of all of the time that they share on screen, one moment that speaks to their love is Jamie’s performance of “The Schmuel Song,” a lyrical story that he sings to Cathy in order to lift her spirits, and to see them beam at each other as they dance around their apartment near the end of the scene is an absolute pleasure.
The screenplay by LaGravenese follows the structure of the play, where we go back and forth between Cathy and Jamie’s points of view. Despite me enjoying the movie the first time that I watched it last summer, I found that telling the story like this was kind of arbitrary, but I now have an understanding as to why it was told this way. With the story being told from two points of view, we have two timelines start out as being on opposite ends of the movie’s timeframe, eventually coming closer together until they meet in the middle at Cathy and Jamie’s wedding, and then drift further apart, which is emblematic of Cathy and Jamie’s relationship because they come closer and closer, only to drift further and further apart as time goes on. As this happens, the emotional ups and downs reflect the volatility of their relationship. Yes, the story can seem thin, but when it’s told in a captivating way, complete with wonderful performances and great music to back it up, it’s difficult to complain.
Ever since I watched this movie for the first time, I’ve listened to selections from the soundtrack almost every day. They’re get-stuck-in-your-head great, ranging from joyous to heartbreaking, so your emotions run a gamut of highs and lows, taking you on an emotional back-and-forth as you go through Cathy and Jamie’s relationship. From the upbeat “Shiksa Goddess” and “I Can Do Better Than That” to the downbeat “See I’m Smiling” and “Nobody Needs to Know,” the soundtrack has tremendous feeling behind it. However, the best selection from the soundtrack is the ending number, “Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You,” a song of such power that brings this love story to a crescendo because of how it blends the beginning and end of the relationship to poignant effect. We see Cathy’s optimism of what this relationship could bring, and we see Jamie’s regrets over where this relationship has brought him, concluding the film on the best note possible.
Although this is a musical, LaGravenese doesn’t resort to flashiness; and, for this type of musical, that’s okay because the story doesn’t demand grand sets and elaborate dances, but is instead an intimate look at a relationship, with the movie focusing on just these two characters. LaGravenese captures the laughs and tears of Cathy and Jamie’s time together and ensures that every scene presents as much authenticity from their bond as possible.
The best love stories are the ones that are the most relatable, and no matter how your previous romances turned out, there’s a good chance that you might find a part of you and your significant other in “The Last Five Years.”
Grade: A-
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