Hidden in Plain Sight
This Valentine’s Day weekend, movie screens across the nation will feature film that portrays a distorted understanding what it means to love and be loved. And no, it isn’t 50 Shades of Grey . Sure, the story of a sadomasochistic billionaire is grabbing all the headlines, but the extreme outrageousness of its story means it is, thankfully, far removed from most Americans’ lived reality. But this weekend’s release of The Last 5 Years , a love-and-loss story based on a musical of the same name by Tony-award winner Jason Robert Brown, is a painfully recognizable, small-scale depiction of how our culture’s misunderstanding of love and marriage lead to heartbreak and regret. The show’s conceit has Cathy, to be played by rising Hollywood star Anna Kendrick, singing her story starting with their divorce and working her way backwards, and Jamie, Jeremy Jordan in the movie, singing chronologically from their first meeting and onto the end of their five-year relationship. They s...