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The Five Year Engagement Review

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[dropcap style="font-size: 60px; color: #9b9b9b;"] T [/dropcap] he Five-Year Engagement is really a Judd Apatow film of the old tradition. It is written by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller and has all the great comedic lines and themes that we have come to love of Segel’s work.
This is the story of a San Francisco chef who moves to Ann Arbor, Michigan (portrayed as the worst snow-bound Hicksville you can imagine) to allow his British fiancé (Emily Blunt) to pursue her graduate studies while he makes deli sandwiches. The story is a delightful blend of waylaid careers and postponed lives that manifests itself in an extended engagement between Segel and Blunt with all the attendant foibles. I found myself laughing at gag’s like deerskin mugs and dead bucks through the sunroof in ways that only could happen with well-crafted dialogue and subtly hilarious sideways glances. You could almost see Will Ferrell playing this part more than Jason Segel and yet I find Segel funny where Ferrell increasingly misses the mark with me.
The supporting cast led by Blunt is appropriately funny and provides a good backdrop for Segel. Chris Pratt and Alison Brie are perfect as his friend and her sister….they are understated and very funny in an offhand way. Brian Posehn with his deadpan stoner voice is a perfect deli work mate and Rhys Ifans (you will remember him as the roommate in Notting Hill) is a bit stiff (he’s clearly gone Hollywood) as the lecherous but sophisticated Professor to Blunt’s grad student persona.
The real joy in this movie is watching people find a way to be happy driving and working a converted EMS vehicle as a taco truck with the legend 9-1-YUM. I like this real-life element and the fact that money and the lack of evidence thereof NEVER enters this film. How is that possible?….how is it that money culture does not permeate every nook and cranny of life in every level of socio-economic existence? Well, it apparently does not….and it’s great to see. This makes me want to go out an invest in taco trucks…..oops, there I go again.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Review

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[dropcap style="font-size: 60px; color: #9b9b9b;"] S [/dropcap] almon Fishing in the Yemen is a rarity for Hollywood….a truly creative and entertaining movie that has a meaningful and motivational message. If you’ve seen the trailers, you know the gist…a wealthy Yemeni sheik with a British education wants to import salmon fishing into the Yemen and the nerdy and cold-blooded Sottish fisheries expert can’t get past the stats which say the project isn’t feasible. This is a story of faith and constancy in one’s work and life. It is such a fundamental belief of mine that enthusiasm and optimism are what make the world go around, that I find myself loving this film. I will not espouse the power of positive thinking in a relativity theory sense, but rather in a very human sense. It’s simple…..people want to be around enthusiasm and they respect perseverance, so they help an endeavor thus backed to succeed.

Ewan McGregor stars as Dr. Fred Jones, the fisheries specialist who works for the Fisheries Ministry right up until this bound-up civil servant throws over his job in defiance of a high-ranking Minister. What I like about Ewan is his ability to look so pained and pathetic while being so damned funny in a British/Scottish way. He is perfectly complemented by Emily Blunt as Harriet, the competent and compelling private banker to the Yemeni sheik. She obviously provides the perfect if somewhat conflicted and reluctant love interest for Ewan. Kristen Scott Thomas is also well-cast as the Press Secretary to the PM.

The magic here comes from creative screenwriting by Simon Beaufoy of Slumdog Millionaire and The Full Monty fame. And then there is the direction of Lasse Hallstrom, who brought us Gilbert Grape, the Cider House, Shipping News and Chocolat. All of Hallstrom’s work shows the subtlety of complex characters caught in difficult relationship situations.

If every young entrepreneur or hedge fund manager saw this movie and learned the lessons of faith and constancy….not to mention the value of conviction and integrity.