The Last Five Years (2014)

A struggling actress and her novelist lover each illustrate the struggle and deconstruction of their love affair.

Director:

Richard LaGravenese

Writers:

Jason Robert Brown (based on the musical play by), Richard LaGravenese (screenplay)

Stars:

Anna Kendrick, Jeremy Jordan, Tamara Mintz

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Anna Kendrick	...	Cathy Hiatt
Jeremy Jordan	...	Jamie Wellerstein
Tamara Mintz	...	Danica Schwartz
Cassandra Inman	...	Erica Weiss
Kate Meltzer	...	Handelman Twin #1
Emma Meltzer	...	Handelman Twin #2
Bettina Bresnan	...	Heather Greenblatt
Charly Bivona	...	Annie Mincus
Alex Stebbins	...	Karen Pincus
Lily LaGravenese	...	Lisa Katz
Betina Joly	...	Stacy Rosen (as Bettina Joly)
Upa Inspace	...	Ellen Kaplan
Lisa Herring	...	Julie Silber
Nina Ordman	...	Janie Stein
Robert Immerman	...	Shapiro (as Bob Immerman)

Storyline

The Last 5 Years by Tony award winning composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown is a musical deconstruction of a love affair and a marriage taking place over a five year period. Jamie Wellerstein is a young, talented up and coming Jewish novelist who falls in love with Cathy Hiatt, a Shiksa Goddess struggling actress. Their story is told almost entirely through songs using an intercutting time line device; 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.

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Plot Keywords:

based on play | number in title | 

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Taglines:

There are two sides to every love story

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Musical | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sexual material, brief strong language and a drug image

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 February 2015 (Philippines)

Also Known As:

The Last 5 Years

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$38,677, 20 February 2015, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$137,945, 1 March 2015

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lucky Monkey Pictures, Sh-K-Boom Records, Grand Peaks Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the original musical, Cathy sings that she saw Jamie's book "at a Borders in Kentucky". Since Borders has gone out of business, the line was changed to "at a Target in Kentucky."

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Goofs

Towards the end of "Shiksas Goddess", Kathy extends her left hand which Jamie then takes to pull her up, but when the angle changes, he is then pulling her up with her right hand.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Cathy Hiatt: [singing] Jamie is over and Jamie is gone. / Jamie's decided it's time to move on. / Jamie has new dreams he's building upon. / And I'm still hurting.

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Connections

Featured in Conan: Anna Kendrick/Gabrielle Union/Lee Ann Womack (2015)

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Soundtracks

I Can Do Better Than That
Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
Performed by Anna Kendrick

User Reviews

Better sung than visualized

I became a fan of L5Y when I saw a regional production in the Berkshires. I instantly fell in love with the songs and the concept. Since then, I have also seen the recent off-Broadway production directed by Jason Robert Brown himself and have listened to the original cast album non-stop. When I heard they were making a movie of this, I was skeptical, because in the show, neither Jaimie nor Cathy ever share scenes together save for one wedding scene in the middle. I was further skeptical when I heard that they were going to have them in every scene together.

Well, I saw the film on demand last night and I have to say, first let's speak about the music. The reason I loved the music so much was because it had such small orchestrations and no drums. I was afraid that adding drums, more strings, and more electric guitar would take away the chamber feel of the sound, but on the contrary, it actually enhanced it. Second of all, they chose two great singers who were able to sing most of the score live, and I have to give props to Anna Kendrick, who is probably the best Cathy I have seen and heard. Also, props for not cutting a single musical number, and they didn't have to because the show was an hour and a half to begin with.

Now for everything else. The new dialog between the songs hardly added anything to the film. I'm mainly concerned with Cathy's dialog during the Shmuel Song. Also, in the play, every song Cathy sang took place when she was going backwards, but a few parts of her songs, mainly "When You Come Home..." and the final part of "Climbing Uphill", seemed to take place in chronological order. Also, that whole fantasy sequence in Shiksa Goddess with all of Jaimie's Jewish girlfriends was way too unnecessary, as was that brief dance scene during "Moving Too Fast".

Other than those things, I thought it was very well done.