Based on a short-lived, off-Broadway, cult classic I wondered how smooth the transition from stage to screen would be for The Last Five Years. I’m, guiltily, the sort of person that perpetually complains that an adaptation is ‘never as good as the original’ book/play/person. But they’re never supposed to be as good as, they’re supposed to be different: a retelling, someone else’s vision and someone else’s budget. Richard LaGravenese’s retelling of James Robert Brown’s original is integrally honest and understated. It never once falls into the trap of over-gilding the lily in the name of Hollywood.

This is important because The Last Five Years is an everyman story. Structured around an uneasily familiar five-year relationship between Cathy (Anna Kendrick) and Jamie (Jeremy Jordan). They go through all the love, sacrifice, jealousy, heartbreak and sheer normality that we all endure with someone, sometime. It is not a simple as the linear journey from the carelessness of love’s young dream to the accidental corruption of heartbreak. Firstly, the vulnerability of Kendrick’s character stems from the instability of her aspiration to be an actress. She has a constant feeling that she’s treading water and never really getting anywhere as she struggles to have her worth recognised and keep her self-respect intact. Cathy is physically unsupported as she provides background support for Jamie as the success of his debut novel sky rockets. She is forced to look on as he achieves with ease and it suffocates her.

The second disruption to linear simplicity comes from the structure itself. A structure that, I think, is the winning element of the film. Cathy and Jamie are telling the same story from their own perspectives. Cathy starts at the end of their relationship, working her way back to when they first met. Jamie’s starts at the beginning and unravels its way to the end. Meeting in the middle at a scene showing both sides of their marriage proposal. In all honesty, until this point I had absolutely no idea whatsoever that The Last Five Years was being told both back to front and front to back before my eyes. Once it struck me, though, a whole new light was shed on ever detail of those last five years.

Surprisingly, it’s difficult to decide who to side with. All arrows seem to point to Kendrick: she’s popping up all over the shop, on posters in every bus stop and getting chatted up on chat shows. With good reason, too: she’s got talent bursting out of her seams and a voice that absolutely knocks you for six. She is appealing because despite her extraordinary talent, she seems ordinary and accessible to actual ordinary people like me. She has an incredible ability to convey intense emotion in her performances without it being over-obvious. Jordan is in no way cowering in her shadow, his belting voice is matched by his naturalism and abs.

The Last Five Years’ downfall is that it isn’t quite enough, there’s not enough substance, not even enough story. I have difficulty trying to connect myself to a film that is almost entirely sung, however well sung it is I could definitely do with some good, old fashioned dialogue. There’s bags of style but not much else besides.

The Last Five Years will be released exclusively at The Empire, Leicester Square on 17 April, on VOD on 1 May, and on DVD on 4 May 2015. Cinema tickets are now available for pre-booking from The Empire website.