The Last 5 Years

[projekktor id=’17581′]

The Last 5 Years is an adaptation of Jason Robert Brown’s off-broadway musical, written and directed by Richard LaGravenese (P.S. I Love You). The film had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year in the Special Presentations programme. Go-to musical actress Anna Kendrick and broadway actor Jeremy Jordan star.

THE LAST 5 YEARS is a musical chronicling a love affair and marriage taking place over a five year period. Jamie Wallerstein (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.

LaGravenese had to adapt The Last 5 Years’ interesting story structure for the screen, but he found it wasn’t as difficult to follow as it seemed. “In the script, I helped myself follow it by adding years in subtitles. But, when I edited it, I had multiple screenings – always with half the audience who knew the show and half the audience who knew nothing about it. After each screening, I’d ask them, do you want subtitles telling you what year it is? At every screening, 99 percent of the audience said, No, don’t spoon feed us the story.”

The Last 5 Years is rated PG. Read our review here.