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5x2
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 24 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 10 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Foreign | Romance
Written by:
François Ozon (scenario)
Emmanuèle Bernheim (scenario collaborator)
Directed by: François Ozon
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 10, 2005
DVD: October 25, 2005
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: France
Summary
RATING: R for strong graphic sexuality, language and some drug content
Starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Stéphane Freiss, Géraldine Pailhas, Françoise Fabian, Michael Lonsdale, Antoine Chappey, Marc Ruchmann, and Jason Tavassoli
5x2 is a haunting and realistic evocation of the evanescence of love, and how adult relationships evolve over time. Returning to a more intimate scale following his international smash "Swimming Pool," Ozon's chamber drama is an anatomy of a failed marriage told in reverse chronology. (ThinkFilm)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: 8 Women Angel Criminal Lovers Swimming Pool Time to Leave Under the Sand Water Drops on Burning Rocks
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Ozon's greatest special effect is holding the camera in tight on the faces of Bruni-Tedeschi (one of the most expressive faces in French cinema) and Freiss.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
A sort of anti-date movie, a smart but deeply cynical study in failure, with our sense of loss growing in direct proportion to the characters' romantic hopes.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Unlike "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind," which holds the memories of a doomed affair as precious, there's nothing bittersweet about Ozon's failed romance, but its problems are equally true.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Plays a little like a mystery, the central question of which is not whodunit but why.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
When you piece it all together, it becomes mildly fascinating.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Compellingly acted and rich in visual ideas, but a bit thin in its psychological approach.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
5x2 is a little talky and the pace is slow, but, for this kind of motion picture, it's one of the best around.
Read Full Review >Variety Lisa Nesselson
Excellent perfs and writer-director Francois Ozon's sure, unfussy way with the camera add up to a viewing experience whose richness depends in large part on how much the viewer reads into the human templates on display.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
You can make a good movie about a bad marriage, as countless directors, the latest being Ozon, have discovered.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
Austere and formally complex, the drama may nevertheless be Ozon's most accessible film due to the physical attractiveness and vitality of the intelligent couple.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Feminist sanctimony, it turns out, looks much the same forward and backward.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
France's François Ozon's 5 x 2, which resembles Ingmar Bergman's "Scenes from a Marriage" told in reverse, could be played for laughs, or suspense -- who killed this marriage? -- or with the rueful irony of Stephen Sondheim's backward musical "Merrily We Roll Along."
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
In 5 x 2, the 2 are terrific; it's the 5 that needs work.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
It flirts intriguingly with the unknowable, what it shows us of the knowable isn't terribly interesting.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
In the end I respected 5x2 more than I loved it. As we move backward in time, the distance between audience and characters inevitably widens -- we know what's going to happen and they don't -- and I found the effect a little astringent.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
There’s precious little character development forward or backward.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
Bruni-Tedeschi is a lovely actress, and whatever emotion is evident onscreen comes courtesy of her.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The film is bleak, not particularly compelling, and the characters are frustrating, the enemies of their own happiness.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
Told in the usual sequence, the story of Gilles and Marion would be a banal bell curve of infatuation, bliss, boredom, regret and recrimination. As it is, 5x2 does not quite make the case that Gilles and Marion are entirely worth our interest, let alone our sympathy, but the reversal of narrative order gives their ordinary moments together a faint aura of mystery, as Mr. Ozon teases us with the conceit that it will all make sense in the end - or rather, the beginning.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Ozon's take on this marriage in particular is notable – apart from Freiss and Bruni-Tedeschi's bracing performances – for his unwillingness to let things spiral out of complete control.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Melissa Levine
For anyone who believes in the gorgeously messy truth of French social drama, it's a grave disappointment.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chad S. gave it a6:
Giles (Stephane Freiss) and Marion(Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) sign their divorce papers, then they adjourn to a hotel room for some afternoon delight. What is this? "Au revoir" sex? No. "5x2" is telling their story in reverse, and if this narrative device dredges up bad memories of Monica Belluci's anguished screams on a desolate subway platform; relax, Francois Ozon's follow-up to "The Swimming Pool" is closer to "Betrayal" (written by Harold Pinter) than Gaspar Noe's "Irreversible". This disillusioned Parisian couple can't move on because quantum physics is making them relive their personal hell... and heaven. "5X2" is a real downer, however, self-consciously so; every momentous occasion in their married life (the wedding night, the birth of their child) is marred by Gilles' perplexing behavior. In the gaps, their ongoing life that goes unexamined by the camera eye within the fade-outs between every sour vignette aren't nearly as enigmatic as they should be, since the devil in their holy matrimony tells us all we need to know about their marital trajectory before each narrative wormhole snakes into the doomed couple's past. "5X2" is well-acted, nicely photographed, but kind of pointless.
Aaron A. gave it an8:
Ambitious, superbly acted, imperfect. Recommended.
George G. gave it a9:
This compelling dissection of a marriage gone bad offers superb acting and sublime directing. Viewers who don´t like it obviously are dead in the brain and between their legs.
alberto r. gave it an8:
Has a soap opera infidelity argument cutter and twisted upside down. It is a blow of fresh air in the middle of thousands of action American films. In the beginning (end) of the film a character opens the window to see the Mediterranean Sea and you can feel the wind. There are no bullets, no car persecutions, no drugs, and no heroes. You have only to find the characters reason for their unnatural behavior. Good to share, and discuss ( or argue) with a friend.
Adrian E. gave it a0:
Don't waste your time watching this! If this is the best French film of the year (yes it's claimed!), then I won't be watching any other French ones either!! Very disappointing.
T Ngo gave it a5:
In 2004, two French directors produced two reverse-chronological love stories. Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was rich in character development: as the story unravels, it becomes apparent that what had attracted the two doomed lovers at first blush, would eventually repel them. Ozon's 5x2, the other 2004 reverse love story (now finally released here in the states), unfortunately, lacks the strong character development that made Eternal Sunshine so worthwhile. With such a temporal narrative device, it would have been of utmost interest and welcome to the viewer had the Ozon imparted me, and others as well, with any kind of insight into their tempestous affair, considering the fact that we are provided with the outcome in the beginning. What attracted them in the first place? And what drew them apart? We don't know, and frankly, we don't care all that much (even though Valeria Bruni Tedeschi's performance does elicit pathos from this viewer, from time to time). We have the solution to the puzzle, but we can't help but wonder about HOW the pieces to the puzzle fit. Nevertheless, it is, for the most part, an entertaining film. But for anyone looking for a love story that will emotionally resonate long after the screening, this is not the one.
Tim D. gave it a9:
Very well made, with the fascinating power of a slow-motion car crash, telling a difficult story that does not flinch from showing complex, difficult aspects of its characters. Effective, naturalistic acting across the board, most notably that of Bruni-Tedeschi.
