Movie Moment: The Five-Year Engagement

If NBC made a feature-length romantic comedy, then it would be a lot like The Five-Year Engagement.  Which makes sense because the movie costars a host of NBC actors, including "Community's" Alison Brie, "Parks and Recreations' " Chris Pratt, "The Office's" Mindy Kaling, and "Saturday Night Live" alum  Chris Parnell.  That having been said, it should come as no surprise that The Five-Year Engagement is a thinking person's romantic comedy that peeks under the rocks that line the babbling brook of happily ever after.  Which, to be honest, I didn't like so much at first.  But somewhere along the line I decided that I was (ahem) in it for the long haul.

The Five-Year Engagement is the story of Tom (Jason Segal), a laidback chef, and Violet (Emily Blunt), a sophisticated academic, who meet at a New Year's Eve costume party and get engaged just one year later.  Their journey begins with the usual challenges of wedding planning and meddling family members only to tumble into a move from San Francisco to Ann Arbor when Violet is offered a job at the University of Michigan.  Tom is reduced to making sandwiches for minimum wage and takes on most of the wedding planning duties while Violet becomes increasingly engrossed in her psychology research.  As a result, they dance around their real issues, instead overthinking the logistics of their more-than-once postponed wedding.  Meanwhile, Violet's sister (Alison Brie) and Tom's best friend (Chris Pratt) have a one-night stand that results in a baby, a shotgun wedding, and (despite some garden variety bickering), what appears to be a happy marriage. 

The Five-Year Engagement is funny.  But its real strength comes from recognizing that life doesn't get figured out in one heart-stopping epiphany on the way to the airport, but in mistakes born from the denial that we use to get us through the day.  In tackling this traditionally unromantic angle that good relationships require work, not soulmates, The Five-Year Engagement becomes romantic in a whole new - and more believable -way.             

Movie Moment: The Muppets

About four months after its Thanksgiving weekend debut, the bf and I finally succumbed to Muppet mania.  Like most people, I'd been looking forward to The Muppets for its color, comedy, and all-around craziness.  But I was a little disappointed, which made me feel curiously guilty (I mean, this was the Muppets!), so much so that I defensively chided myself, "Well, maybe that's because you're not five."

Speaking of being a kid, "The Muppet Show" was a little before my time, but I saw The Great Muppet Caper, Muppets Take Manhattan, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and of course, that hallowed mecca of Muppets, "Sesame Street."  Miss Piggy was my favorite.  Her wardrobe was so dazzling that it outshone her bad attitude.

But back to the movie at hand.  Sweethearts Gary and Mary (Jason Segal and Amy Adams) travel to LA to celebrate their anniversary with Gary's kid brother, Walter, in tow.  Walter, it should be mentioned, is not a man, but a muppet (the philosophical ramifications of which are examined to song later on).  Loveable but odd, Walter has been unknowingly driving a wedge between the two-cute-for words Gary and Mary for the better part of ten years.  Mary, like so many women before her, has had it but is too sweet to say so.  As a result, romance is tossed out the window as the trio sets off to tour the old Muppet studio only to find that it's fallen into the clutches of an oil-hungry opportunist (Chris Cooper).  Stricken, Walter leads the way in rounding up his heroes, finally persuading Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, Miss Piggy, and the rest of the gang to reunite to perform one last show to save their studio.

Despite a star-studded cast comprised of Kristen Schaal, Jack Black, Rashida Jones, Alan Arkin, and several others, the storyline falls slightly flat.  Nevertheless, highlights include Amy Adams's retro-cute outfits (her inaugural one is in Ronald McDonald-worthy red and yellow), Emily Blunt as secretary to Miss Piggy's Paris plus-size Vogue editor, a la The Devil Wears Prada (red wig and all!), and Bret McKenzie's Oscar-winning song "Man or Muppet," during the course of which "The Big Bang Theory's" Jim Parsons makes an appearance as Walter's alter ego.  As a side note, "The Big Bang Theory" in general and Jim Parsons (as Sheldon) in particular are growing on me.  But more on that later.

Movie Moment: The Adjustment Bureau

I wasn't sure what to expect from The Adjustment Bureau. It wasn't the kind of movie I typically wanted to see, but I found myself drawn to it. Here's a spoiler-free synopsis.

David Norris (Matt Damon) is running for the New York Senate. He's young. He's brash. He's just has his lead in the polls killed by a picture of him mooning his old classmates at his college reunion. Before giving his "I tried" speech at the Waldorf he slinks into the men's room and starts talking to himself. Then a beautiful woman (Emily Blunt) holding a champagne bottle emerges from one of the stalls. She tells him that she's hiding from security because she crashed a wedding, establishing her fellow rebel status. They kiss. Then David has to go off and give his speech. Up on stage he starts to say all the things he's supposed to. His staff looks on from the wings, smiling with approval. Then he starts talking about how they picked out his tie for him, how certain colors mean certain things and how important it is to convey just the right message. He talks about how his shoes can't be too shiny because shiny shoes alienate working class men, but that they need to be a little shiny because shoes that are too scuffed turn off the businessmen who pay for the studies that helped them figure out what they know about ties and shoes. His staff is no longer smiling. Then he takes off his shoe to show everyone just what the proper amount of scuffing looks like. Flashbulbs explode; people cheer. David's gone from defeated candidate to the front runner in the next election. I liked this part a lot. Not only is it a classic damn the man scene, but it sets the audience up for what follows. Soon after, David boards a bus and runs into the woman he met in the bathroom. He finds out that her name is Elise, and she gives him her number. But it can't be as simple as that. All of a sudden, men in suits and fedoras are chasing David. Once they've got hold of him, they explain that he can never see Elise again because she isn't part of the plan. Everyone, apparently, has a predetermined plan from which he/she cannot deviate.

To say too much more would spoil the movie. But I will say that this fate vs. free will story is more complicated than it seems. To risk a cliche, it makes you think.