5 x 2 film review

certificate_15

5 X 2

The latest in a flurry of recent French films to tell their stories backwards (see also Gaspar Noe's Irreversible and Lucille Hadzihalilovic's upcoming Innocence), Francois Ozon's new work chronicles the breakdown of a marriage in five scenes, beginning with the divorce and culminating with the very first meeting between the two lovers. Thanks to two engaging central performances, the film has a certain intriguing value, but the overall effect is obscured by the gimmicky way in which the director chooses to tell his story.

Ozon is in France's premier league as a director, with his films now guaranteed an international release, thanks to the success of previous works such as Sitcom, 8 Women and Swimming Pool. Adept in a variety of genres, here he turns his attentions to the key moments that turn a relationship sour, and just as Kubrick did in Eyes Wide Shut, suggests that even the most durable partnerships have deep fissures.

The film centres on the marriage of Gilles and Marion, a husband and wife that are both middle class and approaching middle age. Beginning with the annulment of their marriage at their divorce lawyer, and a subsequent desultory final tryst in a hotel bedroom, the story soon jumps back in time to see just how they arrived at this sad stage.

The four elongated flashbacks let us learn a lot more about the characters and the demise of their love. Gilles is stereotypically male and often non-committal, while Marion is the more sensitive of the two. The two have good times at a dinner party with their gay friends, and reveal that they have tried attending orgies together. In a further sequence we see Gilles failing to confront fatherhood by not turning up to the birth of their child.

Perhaps the most interesting scene occurs on their wedding night, when Marion encounters a handsome and mysterious stranger while Gilles sleeps off his party excesses, and finally we see the first meeting between the two, the first flush of love that occurs when they go on holiday together.

All of the scenes are linked by the same song, Paolo Negro's haunting Sparring Partner, the evocative melody of which lifts the proceedings every time it is used. Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and Stephane Freiss show just why they are two of France's in-demand actors, delivering involving and wholly believable performances as the couple at several distinct phases in their lives.