Tribeca 2014: Olivia Thirlby ’5 to 7′ Review

Tribeca Film Review: ’5 to 7′

Saccharine, overwhelmingly melodramatic and filmed with a glossy sheen, one is either quickly won over by the charms of the romantic drama 5 to 7 or simply turned off from the start. The premise is simple: Brian (Anton Yelchin) is an aspiring writer with a wall full of rejection letters, used for motivation. As his voice-over will tell you, in New York City you’re always 20 feet away from someone you know or someone you’re meant to know. Putting this sentiment to the test, one day he encounters the ravishing Arielle (Bérénice Marlohe), eight years his elder, and for the first time ever, tries his chances at wooing her.

Sparks fly and she tells him she’s at the same location (the swanky St. Regis New York, located in midtown Manhattan) every Friday at the same time, but only available from the hours of five to seven, also known as “cinq a sept,” the moment in one’s day where they don’t need to be accounted for. As any interested party might, he returns but soon learns that she’s actually married to a French Diplomat (Lambert Wilson) and has a pair of children. After a few weeks of contemplation, he decides to continue the relationship, an open one that he learns her husband also has with his own mistress (Olivia Thirlby).

As an American, Yelchin’s character is taken aback by this proposition, one that writer/director Victor Levin concocted based on his own experiences in France at a younger age. With their relationship growing deeper, more oddities and awkwardness surface amongst this culture clash — including amusing family meetings, notably with Brian’s humorous parents (Frank Langella and Glenn Close) – but their mutual attraction always at the center.

Wearing its heart (and everything else) on its sleeve, 5 to 7 is the sort of drama that chalks up little to the imagination. Levin guides as through his rollercoaster of an emotional journey with a rousing score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, leaving no no room for subtlety along the way. And aside from a tawdry all-encompassing montage towards the end, I ate nearly all of it up.

Levin, a former writer and producer on Mad Men, and cinematographer Arnaud Potier capture the story (and just as importantly, the city) with a loving eye, giving way to a classical, earnest romantic drama we rarely see on screen with any sort of notable cast. Whether it’s a long take of our leading couple walking through Central Park or a back-and-forth lesson on culture differences (including a viewing of François Truffaut classic Jules and Jim, nodding to the plot here), Levin’s sharply written script remains thoroughly engaging.

What could have been easy subplots that a lesser romantic film would give into — notably a potentially burgeoning relationship with Yelchin and Thirlby’s characters — Levin intelligently keeps focused on the relationship at the center. In her first role following the break-out that was Skyfall, Bérénice Marlohe leaves a much more significant impression than in her Bond film, alluring the audience, along with Brian, with a captivating, matter-of-fact maturity. As Yelchin’s character inevitably wants more, the script, in step with hammering home how one should feel walking away from the film, ambitiously pulls off a satisfying conclusion.

A recurring motif throughout is the inscription on many benches sprawled across Central Park. Often attempting to encapsulate an entire life or series of events in a small box can prove to be a difficult task, one that leaves certain distinctive quirks out of the equation. With 5 to 7, Levin has created a film that is reminiscent of one of these plaques: far-reaching, one-note, but something altogether endearing.

’5 to 7′ Review

Arielle accepts that her husband has a mistress (Olivia Thirlby) and approaches the prospect of taking a lover of her own without guilt or shame.

UPDATED 04/25/2014

Tribeca Film Festival: ’5 to 7′ Review

5 to 7 also happens to benefit from the kind of dream cast few first time directors could ask for.  Close and Langelia are hilarious as Yelchin’s parents who are gratefully, never presented as the predictable “annoying” or “over-protective” parents.  Wilson is terrific as Arielle’s utterly charming husband who is slightly more “masculine” than young Yelchin.  Thirlby continues to prove she is one of the most underrated actresses around, and here gets to play up her confident weirdness with a maturity she rarely has a chance to play.

Review: ‘5 To 7’ Starring Anton Yelchin, Bérénice Marlohe and Olivia Thirlby

As spelled out in the movie, from five to seven PM is a type of unofficial witching hour for French adulterers – the occasion of when you’re whereabouts after work might be hazy and ill-defined. But Arielle and her husband Valery (Lambert Wilson) are out in the open about their dalliances (he has a sidepiece too). Prudish and initially taken aback, Brian finds their whole marital agreement distasteful and attempts to reject it, but Arielle’s charms soon lure him back like a perfume with Pavlovian power. However, the rules of the affair can never change: Brian and Arielle can do whatever they please between the hours of five to seven, sexually or otherwise, but these restrictions eventually begin to chafe the younger, more inexperienced party.

As their cinq-a-sept affair takes roots—Brian even gets to meet the family and Jane (Olivia Thirlby), Arielle’s husband’s younger conquest—he grows disenchanted as his affections for her crystallize into something deeper. As you might guess, matters of the heart complicate and unravel what is already an unrealistic (not to mention totally unbelievable) affair. And then the already schmaltzy “5 To 7” takes a very emo turn for the worse, indulging in every young male cliché about heartache and adolescent angst that there is along the way to its very maudlin, self-pitying, she-coulda-been-the-one conclusion.

Much more of an adolescent male fantasy than a relatable, genuine film about love or relationships, “5 To 7” is deeply naïve and has very few, if any real insights to the heart or human condition. Everyone’s had a broken heart and many a storyteller, filmmaker or otherwise have tried to articulate their lovelorn anguish, but unfortunately for the director, the heartbreak rendered in this forgettable trifle is so prosaic and saccharine, it will rightfully invite plenty of ridicule. [D-]