Movie Review - The Woman in the Fifth

The Woman in the Fifth (2012)

Starring Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas, Joanna Kulig and Samir Guesmi 

Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Let me be honest and upfront here with this one...I'm not quite sure what I watched with The Woman in the Fifth.  The story begins rather straightforward -- or so it seems -- when struggling American writer/college professor Tom Ricks (Ethan Hawke) moves to Paris to be closer to his daughter whom his ex-wife has taken away from him (perhaps not without justification).  After a rough first encounter with his ex and an even rougher ride on a Parisian bus, Tom finds himself with his luggage stolen and hardly a penny to his name.  In a more industrial (read: grittier) part of town, Tom wanders into a bar/coffee shop/hotel run by Sezer (Samir Guesmi) and convinces him to allow him to reside there for a bit.  While essentially stalking his ex-wife and his daughter, Tom wanders the streets of Paris and meets an American bookshop owner who convinces him to come to a literary party he's throwing.  Tom obliges and while at the party he meets Margit (Kristin Scott Thomas) and is instantly drawn to her.  They begin a torrid affair...and that's when things start to unravel for Tom.  Not only may Margit not be who she says she is, but Tom himself may not be the man he always thought he was.

There's something utterly intriguing about The Woman in the Fifth that had I watched it on another evening I might have found pretentious.  But, for some reason, I found myself fully involved in the goings-on of the plot.  That said, I'm still not fully sure of what actually happened in the movie.  What starts as a rather normal, formulaic film ends up being a bit more of a mindf*ck than I was expecting.

Ethan Hawke anchors the film with a strong performance as the beleaguered dad Tom who only wants to spend time with his daughter...so why won't his ex-wife let him?  We in the audience don't know the answer to that and Tom doesn't seem to know either, but Hawke does a nice job of creating a bit of a sense of mystery, while at the same time crafting a full, well-rounded character.  Kristin Scott Thomas has a pivotal role, but it's a much smaller one than I'd been led to believe it would be.  Margit is a mystery and remains one even after the film is over and because of that, Scott Thomas is never quite able to create a persona with which we can identify (which I realize is likely the point, but it leaves us feeling rather cold about her character as a whole).  There's also a nice performance from Joanna Kulig (whom I recently saw in this film) as Sezer's employee and lover who begins to fall for Tom to perhaps disastrous consequences.

The Woman in the Fifth is an odd film and one that I can't recommend to all, but what it does is leave the viewer with a sense of mystery that lingers quite a bit after watching it.  And sometimes a movie that doesn't answer all the questions it poses is as thought-provoking as one that spells everything out for you.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Elles

Elles (2012)

Starring Juliette Binoche, Anaïs Demoustier, Joanna Kulig, and Louis-Do de Lencquesaing

Directed by Malgorzata Szumowska

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

I guess Elles is supposed to be a provocative female-centric view of sexuality, but when you look beyond the graphic sex scenes, there's an odd story that I just can't comprehend.  Magazine columnist Anne (Juliette Binoche) has been doing research on college students willingly turning to prostitution in order to earn money to both go to school and make a decent living.  We join her for a day in her life as her deadline is fast approaching and she remembers back to her interviews with the French-born Charlotte (Anaïs Demoustier) and the Polish Alicja (Joanna Kulig).  As she remembers the accounts of some of the girls' escapades (which we see in explicit detail...although with surprisingly less nudity than I expected given the subject matter), Anne realizes that neither girl really has any regrets with their lives.  Sure, it has caused some tension with boyfriends and family, but their lives at the moment are okay.

This realization makes Anne ponder that her "suburban" lifestyle as a wife and mother is binding her to a more puritan mindset than she'd maybe like.  As she burns her hand with her wedding ring or slices her ring finger while doing the "wifely duty" of preparing a meal for her husband (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) and his boss, the symbolism of "marriage" equaling "pain" couldn't be more obvious.  In that regard, I just really didn't grasp what exactly I was supposed to be feeling after I finished watching director and co-writer Malgorzata Szumowska's film.  Is the freedom of prostitution supposed to be an ideal situation for a woman?  Is marriage a prison sentence?  Or is there an in-between that's more balanced and suitable?  Are the clients of a prostitute and the husbands in a marriage the equivalent in that they have control over the women in their lives?  And are women simply fooling themselves into thinking they're anything other than pawns of men, constantly dependent on them to maintain any type of lifestyle?

In the end, what I came away with was utter confusion.  I didn't know what Elles wanted me to feel after watching it.  The performances are fine (I particularly like Anaïs Demoustier whose character is given a bit more heft than her Polish counterpart), but they aren't spectacular enough to warrant a rave.

I will admit that as a guy, the only reason I even gave this a try was because of the subject matter.  A French film with an NC-17 rating has to equal nudity...and who doesn't want to watch that?  [Call me a sexist pig if you must, but I must also admit that this wasn't simply an "out of the blue" choice...I had read about it when it came to local arthouse, but didn't find the premise interesting enough to actually pay for it.]  But then when it finished, I couldn't help but think that it's a movie that has high aspirations of being something important and provocative (both sexually and intellectually), but fails to communicate its true intentions in any manner.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-