The Last Five Years
RADiUS-TWC | Release Date: February 13, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
12
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinFeb 13, 2015
The camera moves with heightened sensitivity, as if on currents of emotion, and Kendrick is infinitely winning. She’s that rare thing, a movie star with a trained soprano. Read full review
80
NPRBob MondelloFeb 13, 2015
Kendrick qualifies as the movie's secret weapon — actually not so secret now that she's charmed audiences in both Into the Woods and Pitch Perfect. She's so appealing here, in fact, that audience sympathies are likely to be less-than-evenly split between the two leads. Read full review
80
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlFeb 10, 2015
From moment to moment, this Last Five Years is a robust entertainment, often stirring, sad, and funny. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 19, 2015
A pretty good movie expansion of a pretty good stage musical; what bumps it up into contention and makes it of interest beyond devotees of musical theater — you know who you are — is Kendrick. Read full review
75
Washington PostStephanie MerryFeb 19, 2015
It’s more than great dancing and tragic strings that elevate The Last Five Years to a very funny, deeply affecting portrait of love lost and found. Kendrick and Jordan are both Broadway performers with powerful voices. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 19, 2015
A small, shrewd movie about large, messy emotions and regrets. It is a grown-up work about people who grow up the hard way, leaving one heart in disrepair and the other in reckless forward motion. It's a sad piece, but not maudlin. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerFeb 11, 2015
For Kendrick in particular, it’s a sign that she could sing her way through something bigger. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickFeb 11, 2015
Let us now praise Anna Kendrick, who is positively great in the small-scale The Last Five Years — so utterly wonderful that this adaptation of an off-Broadway musical deserves better than a token theatrical release to support its distribution via video-on-demand. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen HoldenFeb 12, 2015
In Mr. Jordan’s portrayal of Jamie, this handsome talented musical theater performer (“Newsies”) goes for the jugular in taking down his character and making him insufferable. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 13, 2014
Beyond scrappy, The Last 5 Years lacks a unifying aesthetic, as if this were merely the run-through, grabbed on the fly without lights, costumes or location permits. This approach does improve upon the stage show in one key respect, however, allowing us to see all those crooned-over emotions writ large on the faces of its two terrific lead performers. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenFeb 18, 2015
The story is really rather prosaic and character details are fairly nonexistent. Yet LaGravenese should be commended for his vision and tenacity, which has helped to create a piece that should be catnip to fans of the modern musical theatre – and in these post-Glee days, who isn’t? Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaFeb 13, 2015
As a date-night viewing option for this weekend, this nearly all-sung autopsy of a failed marriage would pretty much qualify as a Valentine’s Day massacre. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 11, 2015
It's easy to overlook the failings in The Last Five Years. Let it in and it knocks you back on your heels. Just like love. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 11, 2015
No, it’s not deep. But the film, a sung-through (virtually no dialogue) musical by Jason Robert Brown, is sweet and sunny and occasionally funny. Read full review
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