Like Into The Woods, I've seen a video of a stage performance of The Last Five Years before I saw the movie. I thought that the story is very real and the music is so emotional. The fact that this musical is usually performed in relatively small venues, which helps set the tone of the entire thing by how intimate things are, scared me a little. Hollywood tends to polish the material too much that it loses its simple beauty, but the things they changed in this film improved the entire experience. In my books, The Last Five Years will always be remembered as a successful stage-to-screen adaptation.
Ang Kuwento:
THE LAST 5 YEARS is a musical chronicling a love affair and marriage taking place over a five year period. Jamie Wellerstein (Jordan) is a young, talented up and coming novelist who falls in love with Cathy Hiatt (Kendrick), a struggling actress. Their story is told almost entirely through song. All of Cathy’s songs begin at the end of their marriage and move backwards in time to the beginning of their love affair, while Jamie’s songs start at the beginning of their affair and move forward to the end of their marriage. They meet in the center when Jamie proposes.
http://lastfiveyearsmovie.com/story
Ang Maganda:
Just reading the synopsis, alam mo na agad na hindi ito simpleng pelikula. Think of Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind and its jumpy timeline. Kung napanood mo na ang pelikulang iyon at naintindihan mo, then, you won't have too much of a problem following the timeline of The Last Five Years. Kung nagustuhan mo ang ESoaSM, there's a bigger chance that you would like The Last Five Years, too. The story is presented in a very creative way. The whole reversed timeline revealing new dimensions of the same story thing blew me away the first time I saw the play and the fact that they had the other person in the other's singing parts made the disjoints sa kanilang mga personality at perspectives even more vivid. It's creative and it's great!
Anna Kendrick gave a very convincing performance. The first song in the movie, Still Hurting, is EVERYTHING. I knew that if she wasn't able to make the world stop spinning for the audience for those three minutes, the movie won't be good. Pero she did! It was painful. It was emotional. It was just... *sigh* real. I was so relieved when I got emotionally invested after seeing that because I had very high expectations. You see, I saw this video of THE Lea Salonga singing the same song during a rehearsal and she made me cry! Ang taas ng bar na na-set for me. If you don't believe me, just watch this.
See!
Jeremy Jordan was such a revelation. Man, that guy can sing! I never saw an episode of Smash! kahit na I heard that he showcased his singing and acting chops sa series na iyon. And now that I already heard him sing, I'm thinking of watching that series just to see him perform. He was hitting ridiculously high notes like it was nothing! Magaling rin siya to make the audience alternately love and hate his character, Jamie. That's not an easy thing to do. I couldn't help but learn to love him even though the movie sets him up as the bad guy right off the bat with Still Hurting.
The music was even better than the original version. The Last Five Years is normally performed with minimal musical accompaniment. Piano nga lang ang kasabay sa mga off Broadway versions nito. I was a little scared that having access with a whole plethora of musical instruments, Jason Robert Brown would go crazy and drown the message of the songs out pero he didn't. I would go so far as to say that the addition of a full band on some songs added to the beauty and character of the songs. I'm really happy with that.
The look and feel of the movie was spot on. It was dark when it was necessary and bright when they were happy. The transitions are almost seamless and the MTV style storytelling that they employed when the characters sang were very creative. They made some really good choices like the scene where a crowd of tall and "perfect" models hid Cathy from Jeremy's view. I also liked what they did with Jeremy's Nobody Needs To Know. Those helped the audience better understand the lyrics of the song.
Ang Pangit:
I think some of the scenes they added were a little unnecessary. There were two that I had some trouble. The first one was when Jeremy walked around actual women when he sang their names in Shiksa Goddess. I didn't like that part. Having a box of their pictures or not having anything at all would've been better (in my opinion). The other thing was Jeremy's impromptu dance number complete with back up dancers made me shake my head.
Ang Paghuhusga:
Para sa kahit sino na nakaranas na ng relationship that went sour, makaka-relate kayo rito. Sa mga taong nakaranas na maloko ng partner na ayaw umamin, mas makaka-relate kayo. Sa mga taong nakaranas nang manloko, nawa'y makonsensya kayo rito. This is a beautiful, emotional film. Pero if you're not into musicals or if you want a regular Rom-Com, this is not the movie for you.
This movie will force you to read the why's and how could they's of the characters in this movie in between the sung lines. It was designed to let the audience interact with the story and, as you would a crime scene, find out why and how the eventual death of love happened.
Rating:
Watch it. Own it. Feel the pain one last time.
Tapos, move on na, teh!
