Emily Blunt has managed to star in two romantic comedies in the space of just a couple of weeks so which is the best?
The first, Five-Year Engagement, is about a couple whose plans to get married get postponed when Violet (Blunt) gets offered the job of her dreams. Tom (Jason Segel) gives up his on-the-rise chef's job so they can move across country for what should be a fixed term job.
Violet's contract job gets extended, Tom hates the new life and can't get a job as good as the one he left behind and the cracks begin to appear.
And it is funny and well done and entertaining to a point but can't resist a few of the usual rom-com contrivances and cliches. Tom breakdown is a little OTT, for example.
The second, Your Sister's Sister sees Blunt as best friend Iris to Mark Duplass' Jack. Jack is struggling to come to terms with the death of his brother, who happens to be an ex of Iris's.
Iris suggests he has some time out and goes and stays in her family's holiday home in the mountains but when he arrives Iris's half sister Hannah (Rosmarie DeWitt) is there. She has just split up with her long term girlfriend.
Jack and Hannah get drunk and end up in bed together and then Iris turns up to check on Jack and it is obvious that she has feelings beyond friendship for Jack. Should he and Hannah confess?
The script was mostly improvised and there certainly aren't the contrivances and knock-about comedy of Five Year Engagement. And for that I really liked it. It's warm and intelligent and funny - more of what the industry is calling a 'dramedy' rather than a rom-com and that is perhaps why I liked it so much.
Five Year Engagement suffers in the comparison. If I hadn't seen Your Sister's Sister afterwards I probably would have rated it high but the latter was just a more satisfying and rounded film for me, it felt more natural, probably because of the improv.
So Five Year Engagement gets 59% from me (IMDb 67%/63% Rotten Tomatoes) and Your Sister's Sister gets 75% (IMDb 67%/Rotten Tomatoes 86%)
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