Grade: B

I’m making a prediction: when 2012 is over, “The Five-Year Engagement” will be on the short-list of best romantic comedies of the year. Not that it’s a masterwork of the genre à la “Annie Hall” or “When Harry Met Sally,” but it does do a commendable job of avoiding the usual Rom Com pitfalls—e.g. shallow sentimentality and painfully clichéd attempts at “humor”—while telling an engaging story about characters who are actually worth caring about. If you’re convinced that you hate romantic comedies but have agreed to be dragged to one by a significant other, then let yourself be dragged to this one. You’ll live, I promise.

The movie begins with the engagement of Tom (Jason Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt). The couple lives in San Francisco, where Tom is an up-and-coming sous-chef at a trendy restaurant, and Violet is a dedicated and talented student of psychology who hopes to have a career in academia. Both are passionately devoted to their work, which leads to the central challenge of their relationship. When Violet is offered a prestigious postdoc at the University of Michigan, Tom gamely agrees to put his own career on hold and move to Ann Arbor so that Violet can pursue her dream. Loving and supportive, Tom even goes so far as to say to Violet words that you know are going to come back and bite him in the ass: “It’s you and me. We can handle anything.”

What makes “The Five-Year Engagement” something more than mere throw-away entertainment is the fact that it takes a serious stab at addressing the issue of how painfully work and love can conflict with one another in contemporary American society. Granted, the film doesn’t explore too deeply the depth of the resentment that can occur when one member of a couple makes a major sacrifice on behalf of the other. At times the gravity of the situation in which Tom and Violet find themselves is minimized by humor that is ill-timed and overly broad. But it would be wrong to level such a criticism too strongly. “The Five-Year Engagement” is, after all, a romantic comedy, and it works best by remaining faithful to the genre. Screenwriters Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller wisely remain within the conventions of the genre, and their restraint pays off. Attempting to reinvent the romantic-comedy wheel is an invitation to disaster, and Segel and Stoller do an excellent job of taking what we’re already familiar with and twisting it in a distinctive (and occasionally demented) way.

Perhaps the smartest thing about this already smart movie is the casting. Talented actors appear throughout the film, in small but vividly conceived roles. Chris Parnell (the Brando of endearing creepiness) is superb as Bill, a man who, like Tom, has set his own career ambitions aside so that his wife can pursue hers (he occupies his time by knitting sweaters that must be seen to be believed); the still tragically underappreciated Brian Posehn plays a well-meaning but hopelessly inarticulate co-worker at the deli where Tom works in Ann Arbor (he steals every scene he appears in); legendary character actor David Paymer continues to be legendary as Tom’s father; and Mindy Kaling (“The Office”) is sweetly insufferable as one of Violet’s peers in the psychology department at the University of Michigan. All of these characters leave you wanting more—they appear onscreen just long enough to keep the story moving freshly forward, after which they recede gracefully to the background.

Supporting actors Chris Pratt (“Parks and Recreation”) and Alison Brie (“Community,” “Mad Men”) play, respectively, Tom’s best friend and Violet’s sister. Early in the film they become a couple, and their relationship serves as a running commentary on the protracted inability of Tom and Violet to tie the knot. Chris Pratt in the role of Alex is, well, Chris Pratt: his character is pretty much what you’ve already seen on “Parks and Recreation,” but it works wonderfully nonetheless. Alison Brie, meanwhile, is truly exceptional (a scene in which she vainly attempts to speak with solemnity while caught up in a ridiculous fit of emotion is worthy of inclusion on any comedy highlight reel). These supporting performances are crucial to the success of the movie. At a running time of 124 minutes, “The Five-Year Engagement” is longer than it needs to be, and the last third of the film founders a bit as the writers struggle to arrive at an ending that is at once plausible and happy. Thankfully, the excellence of the supporting cast and the quality of the writing help the thinner parts of the story pass by without causing the viewer an undue amount of stress.

While most romantic comedies fail in both the “romantic” and the “comedy” departments, “The Five-Year Engagement” succeeds in both, and it deserves praise for doing so. The best thing about the movie is that it’s actually funny—and not just in one or two places, but consistently from beginning to end. It was a pleasure to watch it in a theater and to join—repeatedly—a roomful of people in laughter. That’s what’s supposed to happen when you’re watching a comedy--too bad it happens so rarely these days.