The Last Five Years
Short description
The Last Five Years follows Cathy, an actress trying to get her career off the ground, and Jamie, a writer whose success arrives while hers stalls. Set in New York, the story traces the five years they spend together, from the first spark of romance to the point where the relationship comes apart. What sets the film apart is how it tells that story: through songs, and from two directions at once. Cathy looks back on the marriage starting from its end, while Jamie moves forward from the beginning. The two timelines meet only in the middle, and the distance between their accounts of the same years is where the film's conflict lies.
Richard LaGravenese wrote and directed the adaptation, with Janet Brenner and Kurt Deutsch producing. It was his fifth directorial feature, arriving between Beautiful Creatures and A Family Affair. Anna Kendrick plays Cathy and Jeremy Jordan plays Jamie, heading a credited cast of 29, with a credited crew of 51. The production had a budget of 4 million USD.
Released in 2014, the film runs 94 minutes and mixes comedy, drama, music and romance. On IMDb it holds a critics' rating of 6.1/10 from 104 reviews, while on TMDB the audience rating is 5.8/10 from 350 votes, a fairly close result that suggests viewers and critics responded to it along similar lines.
What's left behind the scenes
- When Cathy sings the song "Goodbye Until Tomorrow," the action takes place in 2008. However, a license plate on a car parked near her apartment can be seen with a newer design that didn't appear until 2010.
- The film is an adaptation of the stage musical The Last Five Years (2001).
- In the trailer, Cathy hands papers to a man sitting at a piano. This man is Jason Robert Brown, the composer of the musical.
- The plot is partly based on the real-life relationship between Jason Robert Brown and his first wife.
- The film was shot in 21 days. Filming took place in New York, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. The final song, "Goodbye Until Tomorrow," was filmed on the last day.
- Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan sang 11 out of 14 songs live. The song "If I Didn't Believe in You" was filmed in one take. Jeremy Jordan sang this song 14 times before a successful take was achieved. And Anna Kendrick had to sing "Still Hurting" a total of 17 times, with this scene being filmed with five different cameras.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
