The Last Five Years - Film
I've been trying to find a way to write this on Twitter, but I can't do it justice in the character limits. So here it is.
pipsytip and I are watching the DVD of the film adaptation of The Last Five Years. If you don't know the show, here'a s short intro.
The show is a two-hander, starring Cathy and Jamie. Both follow the story of their relationship from beginning to end in different directions - Jamie running forward in time through the show, Cathy running backwards through the show. The two only directly interact during the song "The Next Ten Minutes", and other than that they are telling separate but related stories. It's an interesting story-telling technique and the music (by Jason Robert Brown) is beautiful.
The film doesn't do it justice. It's not the actors' performances that I'm disappointed by; the singing in general is good (even if Jeremy Jordan is no Norbert Leo Butz) and the acting in general is good, but some of the directorial decisions are weird.
Making Jamie sing Shiksa Goddess to Cathy was bizarre. The song is about how he's waited his whole life for someone like her. He's not directing this to her, he's directing it to himself. Almost like he's going "I don't believe it's finally happened!".
The ending, where the two characters are singing two different but intermingling songs, managed to confuse me. The film has the two characters singing these directed towards each other, but at this point of the story they are at two completely different points in time (Jamie at the end of the relationship, Cathy at the beginning). They should not be directly interacting.
Some of the dynamics seemed off. The beginning of "Moving Too Fast" starts with a chord, and Jamie should be in strong, with his "Did I just hear an alarm start ringing?", in a song about how awesome and talented he is, even if life is moving a bit fast. The film version starts out quietly, almost timidly, which I felt was wrong.
The only time I remember seeing Jamie display any real emotion was towards the end of "If I Didn't Believe In You".
I appreciate that taking this concept and making it into a film was difficult. I'm not convinced that if I were coming to it blind I would know what was going on.
All said, it's not terrible, but it's not what I was hoping for.
pipsytip and I are watching the DVD of the film adaptation of The Last Five Years. If you don't know the show, here'a s short intro.
The show is a two-hander, starring Cathy and Jamie. Both follow the story of their relationship from beginning to end in different directions - Jamie running forward in time through the show, Cathy running backwards through the show. The two only directly interact during the song "The Next Ten Minutes", and other than that they are telling separate but related stories. It's an interesting story-telling technique and the music (by Jason Robert Brown) is beautiful.
The film doesn't do it justice. It's not the actors' performances that I'm disappointed by; the singing in general is good (even if Jeremy Jordan is no Norbert Leo Butz) and the acting in general is good, but some of the directorial decisions are weird.
Making Jamie sing Shiksa Goddess to Cathy was bizarre. The song is about how he's waited his whole life for someone like her. He's not directing this to her, he's directing it to himself. Almost like he's going "I don't believe it's finally happened!".
The ending, where the two characters are singing two different but intermingling songs, managed to confuse me. The film has the two characters singing these directed towards each other, but at this point of the story they are at two completely different points in time (Jamie at the end of the relationship, Cathy at the beginning). They should not be directly interacting.
Some of the dynamics seemed off. The beginning of "Moving Too Fast" starts with a chord, and Jamie should be in strong, with his "Did I just hear an alarm start ringing?", in a song about how awesome and talented he is, even if life is moving a bit fast. The film version starts out quietly, almost timidly, which I felt was wrong.
The only time I remember seeing Jamie display any real emotion was towards the end of "If I Didn't Believe In You".
I appreciate that taking this concept and making it into a film was difficult. I'm not convinced that if I were coming to it blind I would know what was going on.
All said, it's not terrible, but it's not what I was hoping for.