With Valentine’s day comes many things: the excessive amounts of reds and pinks flooding the isles of Target, flowers skyrocketing in price and demand, and the impossible excursion that takes place trying to find movie tickets available for that day. This year’s big V-Day release was arguably 50 Shades of Grey which happened to “eclipse” the release of Anna Kendrick’s latest film, The Last Five Years (it was a pun. Anna Kendrick was in Twilight. Get it? Moving on…).
The Last Five Years is an off- Broadway musical that made it to the big screen with Tony Award® Nominees Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan (from Smash on NBC). The story is the telling of a Cathy (Kendrick) and Jamie’s (Jordan) relationship through the last five years from their first meet and date to the wedding and ultimate divorce. Whoa! Way to spoil the ending! I assure you I didn’t. This movie opens on Cathy reading a letter from Jamie saying he’s left her and then digresses through the relationship to where they first met through Cathy’s perspective, while at the same time it progresses from beginning to the end of their relationship in Jamie’s perspective. Confused? It sounds more confusing than it actually is, I assure you.
Each song in the musical is alternating between moments within the last five years that eventually collide in the middle of the movie where one song is sung from both perspectives, “The Next Ten Minutes.” In short, the film progresses from Cathy present day and Jamie five years ago to Cathy five years ago and Jamie today.
Along the way, Jamie receives mega recognition from Random House which is publishing for his novel and is on the fast track to a successful career. Meanwhile, Cathy is a struggling actress in New York who can’t seem to make her break anywhere outside of Ohio theater matinée’s. Whether it’s jealousy or the fear of settling, Cathy seems to be stuck in Jamie’s shadow and is torn between allowing her love the chance at his dreams or fighting for her own.
– Michael Cotter, Assistant Poetry Editor
