The Last Five Years

I watched this movie last night and it was an emotional enough experience for me to return to this blog after years of leaving it alone.

The soundtrack to "The Last Five Years" was a big part of my high school experience. With all the musical theater I did, my friends and I enjoyed listening to music like this as much as we listened to the radio. A few friends shared this soundtrack with me early, and I easily fell in love. I remember it as a pretty big part of my consciousness, even before I truly knew the meaning of heartbreak. I believe I sang "Still Hurting" for several auditions and even for a solo at one of in-between songs at a showchoir festival.

The emotions are palpable in the songs, and it's so well written, and I love how familiar parts of songs come back several times, weaved through the soundtrack. The use of the same phrases several times, but in different context (in love and out of love) is stark and genius. I love how "The Next 10 Minutes" starts with Jamie's comments and ends with Cathy's, showing how they're playing with the timeline.

Anyhow, going into the film, I had no expectations for it. I love the original soundtrack with Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott so much, and I still think it's the better soundtrack vocally.

I thought Anna Kendrick's interpretation of "Still Hurting" wasn't nearly emotional enough. She stared straight ahead, dead inside, but where was the head in the hands, hair pulling, horrible symptoms of true heartbreak? It started off the film pretty weak.

But though we can all agree that Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan aren't as strong as the original cast musically, their acting was pretty wonderful. Their chemistry was incredible, and felt like a real relationship. The musical format doesn't always lend itself to the best acting or plot building, but I think they did the best they could to make the viewers FEEL. I didn't realize how much it had pulled me in until I started all out bawling when I got to "Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You." It's such a heartbreaking reminder of the contrast between falling in love and struggling with heartbreak. That song enough is enough to make you afraid of committing and falling for someone.

This movie made me wonder something the soundtrack (or play version) never made me wonder. What will Cathy do next? What a sad, sad character... at least how Kendrick played her. Frustrated, dejected, insecure, unwilling to give up her dreams, but not emotionally equipt to continue along such an unstable path. Was it just me or did the movie make you almost side with Jamie, the lying cheating bastard? I don't know if it is how the musical was written or how this movie portrayed the story, but I felt like I was feeling more sympathy for him than I had before. Because it gives Cathy no real redeeming qualities other than her charm. More than anything else, I feel sad about this film because of this uneven balance in the relationship that I never noticed before.