The Five-Year Engagement is a 2012 romantic comedy film produced by Judd Apatow, directed by Nicholas Stoller, and written by Stoller and Jason Segel (who'd previously collaborated on Forgetting Sarah Marshall). Segel and Emily Blunt head up an Ensemble Cast that also includes Chris Pratt, Alison Brie, Mimi Kennedy, and David Paymer to name a few.
The movie follows the engagement of Tom Solomon (Segel) and Violet Barnes (Blunt). Shortly after they become engaged Violet gets offered a post-doctoral position at the University of Michigan, and the couple leave their lives in San Francisco so that she can take the job. Their relocation turns out to be just the first of many obstacles standing in the way of their "perfect" wedding.
Provides examples of:
- Agony of the Feet: Tom ends up losing his big left toe to frostbite.
- Altar the Speed: Multiple times for multiple couples.
- Annoying Arrows: Zig-zagged. Violet is struck in her thigh and reacts to the extreme pain, but Tom is able to remove the arrow by yanking it out (without copious amounts of blood), and Violet suffers no long-term ill effects.
- Asian and Nerdy: Ming and Vaneetha
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! : In a hilarious sequence, Audrey is implied to fit this trope. Mostly done to highlight the age difference between her and Tom and how ill-fitted they are for each other. And, you know.
- Tom also qualifies when he gets distracted from watching Alex and Suzie's daughter by a funny cat video. He also apparently has a habit to leave his crossbow on the kitchen table. Hilarity Ensues.
- Beard of Sorrow: One of the signs of how miserable Tom is in Michigan is the awful sideburns/handlebar moustache combo he grows.
- Beta Couple: Alex and Suzie.
- Black and Nerdy: Doug.
- Book Ends: The red ring box.
- Cake Toppers: To show exactly how Altar the Speed is accomplished Tom and Violet have to take a non-purchased cake from a Korean couple with Korean Cake Toppers.
- Career Versus Man: played with, discussed and subverted through the movie.
- Chekhov's Gun: Violet's experiment with the old donuts, with the people who eat the stale donuts being people who are "screwups," as Winton puts it. Violet later confesses to Tom that when she saw him eating old donuts, she knew it was over. When she catches herself eating old half-eaten donuts, she realizes her own life is off track
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Ming and Tarquin
- Dumb Blonde: Audrey, accompanied by a Hair-Trigger Temper.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The movie is about Tom and Violet's engagement. It lasts for five years.
- Fake Orgasm: Tom fakes an orgasm, unconvincingly, while making love with Violet.Violet: Did you just fake orgasm?
Tom: Men can do it, too. I bet you probably couldn't even tell.
Violet: I could. - Fingore: Chef Sally needs a doggie bag for her finger.
- For Science!: Ming's "prank" research project is to pretend people are volunteering for a sleep study, cover them in fake blood and feathers, put a gun in their hands, and scream them awake. When prompted for a motivating hypothesis, he simply responds "I just want to see what would happen." He later does this "experiment" for real.
- Grand Romantic Gesture : Tom at the beginning of the movie with his romantic proposal and Violet at the end.
- Hard on Soft Science: While the film generally tries to portray Violet's academic work as a serious endeavour, a lot of laughs are taken at her field's expense. When the senior staff are trying to brainstorm projects for a research grant (and haze Violet), they all throw out outlandish ideas that seem absurd, but are convincing enough to Violet. And apparently all of Doug's thesis involve masturbation.
- Hidden Depths: Alex sings beautifully in Spanish
- Home Made Sweater From Hell: One of Bill's hobbies.
- House Husband: Bill, one of Tom's new Minnesota-based friends. Tom's also afraid of becoming this trope.
- Informed Judaism: Tom is Jewish, but very secular. Amusingly, when Tom and Violet try to get married the first time, they pick the rabbi of the local Chabad to officiate, lying about Violet being Jewish, who takes their rehearsal dinner as a chance to encourage them to raise their children Jewish SO THEY CAN SAVE ISRAEL FROM THE THREAT OF THE ARAB! (In real life the Chabad movement is indeed opposed to any sort of land concession to the Palestinians, although they aren't as...fervent in this belief as the rabbi is)
- Inherently Funny Words: "peonies"
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Suzie gets pregnant after sleeping with Alex once. They later get married.
- Le Parkour: Winton uses it to escape from a pursuing Tom.
- Moment Killer: Tom and Violet are about to have a romantic moment in the snow, when Tom jumps onto a covered fire hydrant.
- Naked People Are Funny: Jason Segel's bare butt makes a few appearances, always played for laughs.
- New Year's Kiss: Tom proposes to Violet on New Year's Eve. She says yes, and they kiss while fireworks go off in the background.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Alison Brie's accent slips a few times, although Suzy and Violet have been living in America for a while - making this close to Truth in Television.
- "Reason You Suck" Speech: Tom gets one from his mother after he and Violet (temporarily) break things off:Tom: We're not 100% right for each other so there's nothing to be said.Carol: I've got news for you, moron. Your father and I, we're not even 90% right for each other. Not even 60, but he's the love of my life. And right now the love of your life is going to fly away and somewhere in the back of your mind you're thinking that she'll always be there if you want to try again. But you know what, she won't because she's the goddamn best. And some lucky guy is going to make it work with her no matter what instead of settling for some 23-year old airhead who probably doesn't know who the fucking Beatles are.
- Skip to the End: The justice of the peace gives an even shorter wedding speech than he expected.
- Supreme Chef: Tom, with appropriate Food Porn when invoked.
- The Unpronounceable: Exaggerated in an extended version of the scene with Winton's dog Gwyrth. Tom, Vaneetha and Ming find the Welsh name impossible to pronounce, for no other reason other than Global Ignorance.
- Wacky Marriage Proposal : Violet: "I've dreamed about those receipts since I was a little girl."
- We Didn't Start the Billy Joel Parodies: Celebrating their engagement, Alex proceeds to sing a "We Didn't Start the Fire" parody listing Tom's ex girlfriends.
