That's not just a fact of their relationship, but the crux of The Last Five Years, which traces their doomed love story backwards and forwards in time. As Jamie lives out their romance from its origins to its end,

The two stars have chemistry, but get crossed-up in a weak production that is both minimal and messy in this show's Broadway debut.

Reverse chronology can, when successfully executed, be an emotionally piercing way to tell a story: Begin at the end, and see where it all went wrong and right, following the story back to its beginning.