Film review: The Last Five Years - Anna Kendrick sings her heart out

musical , which premiered in Chicago in 2001 and became an off-Broadway hit the following year, a young New York couple's five-year relationship is heart-rendingly reconstructed from the viewpoints of its twenty-something protagonists: one chronologically from the passionate meet-cute, and the other in reverse from the bitter end.

Directed by Richard LaGravenese ( ) and with music and lyrics adapted by Brown, this film version makes a contrived transition from the idiosyncratic stage settings. The jumbled timeline loses its sheen of novelty in cinematic form, and any engagement will depend on the viewer's zeal for a two-character film almost devoid of dialogue. It feels like a music video that refuses to end.

The bare bones of a story follows two creatives as their impulsive marriage — after a moonlit proposal in the middle of the film — cracks under pressure from their deviating career paths. While Jamie (Jeremy Jordan) secures a major book deal and becomes a bestselling novelist, the actress, Cathy (Anna Kendrick), stumbles from one failed audition to another before settling for summer-season theatre in Ohio.