Focusing on the failed relationship of a thirtysomething couple, French director Francois Ozon (SWIMMING POOL, UNDER THE SAND) organizes this film into five chapters they shared together. In backwards chronology, the first chapter of Marion (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) and Gilles's (Stephane Freiss) story has them signing divorce papers, and the last chapter shows the first sparks of romance between them years earlier. A master of controlling his audience's emotions, Ozon elicits vast sympathies for each character, making their relationship--and especially, the problems they cannot live with--more painful with each new detail revealed about Marion and Gilles. We see them alone in their darkest moments as they sit staring into space, smouldering with bitter helplessness at how the relationship is irreversibly wrong. And we see them love, and spar, and hurt each other in ways that seem unimaginable until the full picture is painted. It is this hurt that makes Marion, with her big, defeated, glassy blue eyes, unable to look at Gilles as they review the terms of their divorce. And it is this same hurt that culminates in Gilles raping Marion in a hotel room, brokenhearted and enraged at losing her love. How did this twosome wind up in such a miserable state? The remaining chapters--which pull viewers backwards by their heartstrings--reveal many secrets about this truly sad story. Lacking any tension-breakers, like the line dance in Ozon's WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS, 5 X 2 is sober and disconcertingly intimate. Honest to the point of emotional torture, yet compassionate toward his characters, Ozon has constructed another beautifully moving film. The soundtrack by Philippe Rombi, which features poignant contemporary tunes, plays a part too, in that the characters interact with it, and it becomes their anthem.
