Movie Review for 5x2

Summary: When Marion and Gilles host a dinner party, an air of intimacy born of too much wine causes them to share secrets with their guests that underscore their differences. During a previous milestone moment in their marriage, Gilles fails to show up at the hospital when their son is born because he is reluctant to accept the responsibility the birth entails. On their wedding night, when Gilles passes out, Marion unexpectedly has a sexual fling with a stranger. And finally, their very first romantic encounter takes place at a resort where Gilles is vacationing with his long-time lover.

                         Reviews of 5x2
By Jurgen Fauth of About.com (7/0)
            Ozon makes it exceedingly difficult to feel anything for his protagonists.

By Steve Murray of Atlanta Journal-Constitution (7/0)
            ...a cool, sometimes chilly dissection of one couple's relationship...

By Marc Savlov of Austin Chronicle (7/0)
            Even while we’re flipping through the snapshots of two people’s ultimate disenchantment with each...

By Jamie Russell of BBC (7/0)
            Like life, it's a film full of unanswered questions and uncertain motivations.

By Ty Burr of Boston Globe (7/0)
            (Director) Ozon leaves the dots so unconnected...that our desire for simple drama is frustrated.

By Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid (7/0)
            Repellent... borderline offensive."

                         Reviews of 5x2
By Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve (7/0)
            Director Ozon intrigues us by not obsessing about his charaters' motivations.

By Arthur Lazere of culturevulture.net (7/0)
            a wealth of incident and detail...that actualizes a multi-leveled view of both the characters and...

By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (7/0)
            Bruni-Tedeschi and Freiss give solid performances, though, and their physical transformations ove...

By Emanuel Levy of EmanuelLevy.Com (7/0)
            Deconstructing the breakup of a romance in reverse chronological order is no longer original; Pin...

By Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            Ozon stages each scene so assuredly, with such a fluid sense of motive and desire, that I assumed...

By Eric D. Snider of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
            Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi's character is the one to watch throughout the film, as it is in her demea...

                         Reviews of 5x2
By Boyd van Hoeij of europeanfilms.net (7/0)
            Ozon's script wisely leaves any direct causes for the break-up untold; with two decent performanc...

By Bill Chambers of Film Freak Central (7/0)
            Sympathies sway back-and-forth between the wife and the husband, but never within the same episod...

By David Noh of Film Journal International (7/0)
            The acting of both leads is good, at times more than that, but you feel that you've already seen ...

By Rory L. Aronsky of Film Threat (7/0)
            Ozon has a studied, contemplative style at work here.

By Nicholas Schager of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            ...the portrait of a disintegrating marriage that focuses on five key instances in the troubled c...

By Nick Schager of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            a mature portrait of a relationship's thorny complexity

                         Reviews of 5x2
By Peter Canavese of Groucho Reviews (7/0)
            Ozon presents no easy answers, but his often incisive "show, don't tell" character study makes to...

By Kirk Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter (7/0)
            Played backward or forward, these episodes, while not dull, arrive without preamble or motive and...

By Liz Braun of Jam! Movies (7/0)
            Clever and fascinating, but it's ultimately a downer.

By Carina Chocano of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            [Seems] less like scenes from a marriage than highlights from a gay man's fevered nightmare of wh...

By Marty Mapes of Movie Habit (7/0)
            Doesn't feel like a gimmick at all. It feels like a natural introduction to the characters.

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (6/1)
            Like reading a book from which most of the connective chapters have been removed, backwards.

                         Reviews of 5x2
By Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews (7/0)
            It ends where the story begins at an Italian seaside resort as the couple happily swim off togeth...

By Jon Popick of Planet Sick-Boy (7/0)
            As usual, Ozon gets very strong performances from his two leads, and his skill as a writer contin...

By Mark R. Leeper of rec.arts.movies.reviews (7/0)
            It is no longer particularly original to tell the story of a doomed romantic relationship in sequ...

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (7/0)
            5x2 is a little talky and the pace is slow, but, for this kind of motion picture, it's one of the...

By Sean Means of Salt Lake Tribune (7/0)
            The reverse-chronology gimmick ends up only serving up a trite observation that lies and mistrust...

By Moira MacDonald of Seattle Times (7/0)
            Ozon, as he's shown in his many recent films (particularly Under the Sand), knows a thing or two ...

                         Reviews of 5x2
By Rich Cline of Shadows on the Wall (7/0)
            In each scene, both characters do things that are tender and cruel, which is so like real life th...

By Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine (7/0)
            Oh, François, you big tease!

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of Spirituality and Practice (7/0)
            An engrossing five-part anatomy of a marriage gone bad, directed by Francois Ozon.

By Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone of TheMovieChicks.com (7/0)
            The story never delves deep enough into the characters to really say anything significant.

By Ken Fox of TV Guide's Movie Guide (7/0)
            A wickedly entertaining bit of domestic tragedy: It's strongly acted; remarkably cohesive, given ...

By Urban Cinefile Critics of Urban Cinefile (7/0)
            Peeling off the emotional layers one by one, François Ozon's 5 X 2 reveals intimate snapshots of ...

                         Reviews of 5x2
By Enrique Buchichio of Uruguay Total (7/0)
            (...) Es de esas películas que vale quizá más por las reflexiones y debates que dispara entre las...

By Stephen Hunter of Washington Post (7/0)
            The film is Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage without the boring parts -- wait, I'm not supposed t...

By John Beifuss of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            The soulful Bruni-Tedeschi gives the impression that her beautiful face is bruised, even though i...

By A. O. Scott of New York Times (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            ...it feels more like a story you've heard about distant acquaintances than like something you've...

By Shlomo Schwartzberg of Boxoffice Magazine (3/4) No reference
            An emotionally rich and poignant drama that confirms that filmmaker Francois Ozon is at his best ...

By David Sterritt of Christian Science Monitor (3/4) No reference
            Ozon's drama is compellingly acted and rich in visual ideas, but a bit thin in its psychological ...

                         Reviews of 5x2
By Rick Groen of Globe and Mail (3/4) No reference
            We never get to know the twosome, and the intense curiosity generated by the opening scene starts...

By Robert W. Butler of Kansas City Star (3/4) No reference
            We watch Marion and Gilles with a sort of clinical detachment, and it's difficult to really care.

By Andy Klein of Los Angeles CityBeat (3/4) No reference
            ...we learn a few barely interesting things about the characters, and we are given no reason to c...

By Bob Strauss of Los Angeles Daily News (3/4) No reference
            Marion and Gilles act in ways that rarely prove predictable but usually make a haunting kind of e...

By Kyle Smith of New York Post (3/4) No reference
            Doesn't quite add up.

By Jean Lowerison of San Diego Metropolitan (3/4) No reference
            Gaston said it best: 'It's a bore.'

                         Reviews of 5x2
By Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle (3/4) No reference
            You can get an idea of the two seemingly contradictory truths about this movie: It's not much fun...

By Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle (3/4) No reference
            ...the acting is strong, and the time gimmick of relating the events in backward order, while not...

By Sean Axmaker of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (3/4) No reference
            These aren't puzzle pieces that fit snuggly together but fragments of character in revealing mome...

By Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) of St. Paul Pioneer Press (3/4) No reference
            The effect of the reverse sequencing is to make us view everything in the film -- even hopeful ev...

By Peter Howell of Toronto Star (3/4) No reference
            The inevitability of the conceit could wear on us, were it not for the lived-in performances of t...

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (7/1) Not Reachable
            The simplicity of the film gives it a certain charm.

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