A musical film.
If I ask you to share one movie that had you so invested, even when you haven’t gone through anything that went in the plot, would anything instantly come to your mind?
Mine is The Last Five Years, which is about the five-year course between two people’s married life, from the beginning to the fall out to the separation. It’s starring Anna Kendrick as Cathy Hiatt and Jeremy Jordan as Jamie Wellerstein. I’m single, let alone married, so much so divorced, so it’s safe to say I’ve experienced nothing like the characters.
I actually don’t know much about musicals so I didn’t know what I was being served until I’ve seen it. As I watching it and the story unfolds from every after song, I just found myself even more lost in translation of love and relationships.
When the credits rolled, my emotions are pumped and I just had to collect more information about the movie. Like a fan girl that couldn’t get over the masterpiece that I’ve seen, I needed to know who to blame for breaking my peace, when all I wanted was to see a good movie. For fun. Just kidding. I enjoyed it. After a few web crawls, I found 1) that the playwright, Jason Robert Brown, had the story of his first failed marriage as his inspiration that made The Last Five Years and 2) Jeremy Jordan, the actor who played the husband, is actually married in real life with a fellow musical actress, Ashley Spencer. I cited these two facts among other things I found because they’re what I found really interesting. Yes, I made Jeremy Jordan’s marriage noteworthy because that makes it easier for me to set him apart from the character he played in the movie. He portrayed it so well that for a minute I thought he’s actually *spoiler alert* a jerk overloaded with pride, who’s taken his talent as ticket to control people.
Anna Kendrick was, needless to say, a beauty in the movie. I liked her A Part of That, but I especially loved her acting in If I Didn’t Believe in You. Not one word or singing but her face says it all. How she reacted to Jamie’s words, how she was able to convey the message and her feelings were on point. Both of them did a very striking effect in that song, really convincing acting that you’ll find yourself hating the characters but all the more loving the beautiful performance.
I’ve seen Anna Kendrick from Perfect Pitch so I know what to expect of her singing and acting. It was my first time to see Jeremy Jordan tho, and I apologize to the long-time Newsies fans for it. He’s easily the gem out of this movie for me. I just fell in the deep Jeremy Jordan well and I have no plans of getting out of there. Only his voice can give us saving. If you can’t already tell, I’m just going to say If I Didn’t Believe in You is my absolute favorite performance from him in the film. That piece did a great showing of character for Jamie, and Jeremy did it beautifully that my jaw dropped (literally).
(Admittedly I just had to go around YouTube for a couple of weeks for some more good Jeremy singing videos to compensate my craving for his performances. And lucky me, I even found a duet from him and his wife Ashley. I think they’re really cute together.)
The last song, Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You, left a strong message for me. It’s all fascinating, disappointing and frustrating but not at all surprising to see how different two people see something even when they’re looking at the same thing. Different perspective. The different perspectives have different weights, which hinders them from finding the balance. How can someone be so hopeful while the other so helpless. And I guess that’s why it feels heavy for each, because they don’t share the weight.
I find the story of The Last Five Years to be relatable, and even relevant to many’s struggle in the pursuit of personal happiness. Despite the setting of the story, where its between a married couple, it’s not that far from where I am that I could easily change Jeremy’s character to Society and I act out as Cathy. It still makes sense even if I place it in that sort of perspective. I’ve especially felt for Cathy on Climbing Uphill, where she questions herself. “Why did I pick these shoes? Why did I pick this song? Why did I pick this career? Why?” Not that this is because of my employment status right now but I’m speaking of when I first saw the film. I mean at any point of our life we can all go questioning ourselves, and of our choices, and that’s why I find it relatable. It hits close to home.
I think that’s the beauty in film interpretations. It sends people different messages and it becomes more things than one. I think this is also why this movie has a lasting effect on me. It’s a story of being someone in a relationship and how being in that relationship could change you or the way you see yourself. And this covers all kind of relationships, not just the romantic kind.
Magnifying Life 