The Five-Year Engagement 2012

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: By the 90-minute mark, I was ready for a divorce, but based on the steady squeals of laughter around me at a preview screening, may have been in the minority. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The movie is a precision instrument with no parts jammed together, just everything smooth and functioning. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: This is the smartest, most likable such film I've seen in years, even if you might think it does need to have its mouth washed out with soap. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: "The Five-Year Engagement" dutifully hits the marks of its genre, but it is also about the unpredictability of life and the everyday challenges of love. The sensitivity and honesty with which it addresses those matters is a pleasant surprise. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: A charming, funny, reactionary mating comedy from the Judd Apatow factory... Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Sometime around what I guessed to be the one-hour mark in "The Five-Year Engagement," I checked my watch and honestly thought the battery had given out. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: "The Five-Year Engagement" is one of those movies that you badly want to like much more than you actually do. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Given its title and premise, it's poetically apt that The Five-Year Engagement is a lovely, sweet, funny, romantic, and supremely worthwhile endeavor that unfortunately takes longer to wrap up than it should. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Segel is a warm-and-fuzzy presence in everything he's in, and Blunt is delightful. Some bits are funny, some vulgar, some sweet. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Halfway through you want to yell at the screen for them to run off to Las Vegas and just get it over with already; then again, it becomes increasingly difficult to root for them to stay together when they seem to be headed down such divergent paths. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Between that opening proposal and the film's title, you know exactly what's going to happen, and the result is a comedy-drama almost completely free of dramatic tension. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This story of a promising sous chef who sacrifices his career in San Francisco to follow his girlfriend to Ann Arbor delivers a steady stream of character laughs, along with a rigidly formulaic plot. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: I really like this film, loose flaps, protracted finale and all. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: What keeps the film from seeming shrill is that Tom and Violet, despite everything, genuinely love each other, and their careers dilemma is not played for easy laughs. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: "The Five-Year Engagement" doesn't always work - some of the supporting characters' storylines feel clipped, and the improvised bits could afford to be tightened - but the trip to the altar pays off. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A lively, original, and scattershot-hilarious ramble of a Judd Apatow production. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: The Five-Year Engagement originates with a pre-mythologized meet-cute and ends with Hollywood whimsy but insists on making the hurdles between as little like rom-com contrivance as the filmmakers can get away with. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: A little restraint would have gone a long way to making this a far funnier, fleeter affair. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: A decent-enough romantic comedy with some edge. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: It makes you laugh and eagerly wish for a happy ending without any preachy soul-searching. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: "The Five-Year Engagement" becomes two things: an accurate reflection of a new generation of postponement-prone 30-somethings, and a rather uninteresting story. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Like Apatow's "Funny People," the film is an intentional hybrid: half gag comedy, half open-ended exploration of everything that can go wrong -- and occasionally right -- between two people whom nature, if not society, means to be together. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: An exemplary modern romantic comedy, personal and symbolic, goofy and substantial, tightly imagined yet loosely strung, wise in bewilderment. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A fun, entertaining picture, and another credit to Segel's rising career as a writer and star. Read more

Andrew Lapin, NPR: [It] feels poignant and real in a way few raunch comedies are. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Blunt has never been more relaxed, and she and Segel have a believably warm chemistry. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: This seems like another breakthrough for Blunt, who demonstrates an ample gift for physical comedy. She and Segel make an inspired team. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Between the jokes about drinking mead out of deer hoofs, about tiny tykes armed with crossbows, about meeting cute in a bunny suit and a Princess Di getup, there's serious stuff to consider. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Some of the comedic material provokes laughter and some doesn't, but nearly all of it feels wrong. It's as if the jokes have been shoehorned into the movie because it was deemed too dramatic. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Sometimes uneven and sometimes beyond gross, but more often it's funny, smart and different. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The dream partnership of Jason Segel and Nick Stoller gets dinged a bit in the frustratingly uneven The Five-Year Engagement. Luckily, the movie never runs on sitcom empty. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: It's too bad The Five-Year Engagement's overlong, conventional last third squanders the goodwill built up in that sharply observed middle section. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's a very good movie. If a tough editor trimmed it from 124 minutes to 90, it would be wonderful. Read more

Kevin C. Johnson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: At best, "The Five-Year Engagement" is very well played by its leads and supporting characters. You can't go wrong with Segel, Blunt, Pratt and Brie, the latter two TV stars who are movie-ready. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Feels more like the raw feed than the final edit, and seems to run as long as the time span promised in the title. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Heaven only knows what Frank Oz, who loudly objected to Segel and Stoller's script for The Muppets, will make of the wildly funny scene where Blunt and Brie entertain a young child by having a very adult conversation in Elmo and Cookie Monster voices. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: This is a watchable but rather drab romcom which relies too often on Apatow-school cliche. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Whereas Stoller and Segel did wonders with the formula in 2008's Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a certain overfamiliarity creeps in long before the going gets rough. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Engagement gets the most important thing right, which is the lead casting: Segel and Blunt are completely convincing as Tom and Violet, star-crossed lovers. They really do care for each other, but life seems to be conspiring against them. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: There are funny scenarios and sweet moments, but not nearly enough in this screenplay co-written by Segel and director Nicholas Stoller. Read more

John Anderson, Variety: While Segel and Blunt make likable enough leads, the strain is visible as the filmmakers try to make comedic hay out of disconnected segments, contrived situations and tangential characters. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: Much like the doughnuts that Violet uses in a research experiment: stale and not good for you. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: I liked "The Five-Year Engagement," and then I didn't, and then I did - which seems just about right for a movie dedicated to examining how even the purest affections can be fatally derailed. Read more