The Five-Year Engagement

The Five-Year Engagement (2012) is a romantic comedy you can watch online on iFILM — directed by Nicholas Stoller, produced by Judd Apatow, written by Stoller and Jason Segel, who also stars. At 124 minutes it runs longer than most films in the genre, and it earns the runtime.

Tom is a San Francisco sous-chef. He proposes after a year. Violet gets a postdoc fellowship in Michigan. They move. The wedding date shifts. Then shifts again. Tom sacrifices his career momentum; Violet's accelerates. Neither of them is the villain — that's the point. The slow accumulation of small resentments is harder to watch than a clean breakup.

Emily Blunt plays Violet with enough specificity that the character never tips into a type. Alison Brie and Chris Pratt take the supporting roles and run with them further than the script probably expected. For viewers who find the usual 90-minute rom-com resolution too tidy, this one sits with the mess a little longer. Stream The Five-Year Engagement (2012) online on iFILM.