Conceals as it exposes

Ozon carefully exposes the truth about a marriage in a film that, I think, will not be comfortable viewing for many. Each section poses new questions about what is and isn't, or should and shouldn't be, permissable within a marriage.

The result is something very thought-provoking and memorable, not least for the film's original structure that ends in a bittersweet twist on 'happily ever after'. Perhaps though, this structure means sacrificing something of the immediacy of feeling; it puts a distance between us and the unfolding events so that we remain observers.

The acting is emotionally true, especially from Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, but the actors are never given a climax in which to offer us explicit insight into their desires. This is not necessarily a criticism, as this understatement is an welcome antidote to the usual sentimentality and clunky emotional-signposting created in the hands of less skilled directors when depicting relationships on screen.

I am still unsure what I think of this film compared to his others- Le Refuge I found more immediatly likeable, but I think this difficulty to accept and categorise 5x2 is an indicator of its challenging and rich nature.