“The Last Five Years” is a musical that has been adapted to a movie and recently added on Netflix. The original musical was an Off-Broadway production that first produced in 2002. The film, however, was adapted in 2014. The movie musical stars Pitch Perfect’s Anna Kendrick and Joyful Noise’s Jeremy Jordan.

“The Last Five Years” follows the lives of Cathy Hiatt and Jamie Wellerstein as their relationships and careers develop. Cathy is a struggling actress and Jamie is a writer.

The structure of the musical itself is quite different than just telling the story. The opening scene reveals the end of the movie. Cathy tells her side of the story from the end to the beginning. Simultaneously, Jamie tells his side from the beginning to the end.

Only one song is shared by the two and it occurs right in the middle of the story where the meet in the same point of time. After this moment together, the story returns to the two sided view.

The final song, however, is at the point where each of them are at the end of their stories; this puts Cathy at the beginning of the story and Jamie at the end. The each stand face-to-face singing similar songs with opposite meanings. After the conclusion, the story completely wraps itself up by starting with the same opening scene of the beginning of the movie.

The Last Five Years is an excellent musical full of emotion and relatable circumstances. It is a wonderful representation of the ups and downs in modern relationships.