5x2

Allez boire une bière avec un ami plus âgé, marié, voire déjà divorcé, et vous en aurez un compte-rendu de première main, gratuitement et sans sacrifier le plaisir d'un intéressant film. Özön a écrit et réalisé son "documentaire conjugal" comme un film télévisé - de manière formelle et sans intérêt, sans demande au niveau du contenu et fade. Au moins dans des films comme Intimité ou La pianiste, quelque chose était résolu. Dans ce film, rien n'est résolu et son moteur repose uniquement sur des moments psychologiques bien saisis, qui ne mènent nulle part - donc quelque chose qui, dans un film complet et scénaristiquement travaillé, joue "simplement" le rôle d'un adhésif au milieu d'un vrai drame. Les acteurs sont cependant agréablement réalistes tout le long et le film a une très belle conclusion. (24/03/2005)

Whether the characters are getting to know each other, taking, suffering, or divorcing, they behave so foolishly that not even the most contradictory psyche or life obstacles can excuse it. It's hard to believe that a film that delves so deeply into the intimacy of a relationship can be so unpleasantly cold and alienated. (19/02/2006)

I can't help but feel like 5x2 was a theater play the whole time. That was mainly because the director and screenwriter François Ozon conceived the film in five acts, each of which presented two identical people. However, whether it is the initial divorce (in reverse chronological order), raising the son, his birth, the wedding, or the final encounter, every time it feels like the viewer is witnessing completely different people. Yet there was something missing in these five main points of marital cohabitation. I missed the coherence of the plot that unfolding before my eyes. In fact, the scenes could be used as a good basis for a TV miniseries, rather than as a single feature film. The connection between them is left for the viewer to imagine, and although it's not difficult to do so – Ozon truly excelled as a director – this "connection" should have been the main focal point of his "pushing the envelope." This leaves the viewer with five episodes to watch without the slightest interest, because the film as a whole lacks any atmosphere and any "focal point" in which we could form a relationship with the characters. In fact, this film is so self-absorbed and self-indulgent that it doesn't really need anything or anyone, including the viewer. And that's really as solid as 5x2 equaling 10. That’s too bad because something could have been done with the one. (08/07/2005)