It's not giving away that much to reveal that there isn't going to be a happy ending for the central couple in French auteur Francoise Ozon's new relationship drama. Working in reverse order, the film begins with the pair signing their divorce contract, their faces fragile and drained of emotion. Moving backwards from this point, the film then presents you with five episodes from their time together: the birth of their son, their wedding day, their first meeting on a sunny Mediterranean beach.
Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and Stéphane Freiss play the couple in question, Marion and Gilles. Both performances are gently riveting - really remarkable acting - allowing the viewer to observe the shifts in the dynamics of their relationship as one episode follows another. With Marion especially you can see the years fall away, her face brighten and her body language subtly relax, as we shift backwards through time.
5x2 is a slow paced, well observed study of a marriage's gradual breakdown. There are no massive screaming matches or sordid affairs, not that we are shown anyway, but there are betrayals of trust, both small and large. The viewer is invited to fill in the spaces between each episode; Ozon deliberately leaves crucial questions unanswered - key scenes are hinted at but not shown.
Ozon also includes a couple of sexual encounters that uncomfortably blur the boundaries of what can be considered rape. These were difficult to watch, and particular in the case of the later episode, hard to justify. While the first such scene underlines the rawness of a relationship on its last legs, two damaged people reluctant to let go of what they once had, the second scene serves no such purpose and makes for uneasy viewing.
Had the events in the film played out in the usual order, chances are they would not be of so much interest. The central relationship, though well observed, is unremarkable - its flaws and failings rather run of the mill. But by giving the audience the gift of hindsight, and being so selective in what he chooses to show and what he chooses to leave to the imagination, Ozon opens up the narrative and lifts it to another level.
This is not an easy film, but it is highly rewarding, and possibly Oxon's most satisfying to date. Mark Kermode wrote recently in the New Statesman about the repeated use of water as a motif throughout Ozon's work, in Swimming Pool and in the short film Regarde la Mer; here the waves of the Mediterranean act not just as a symbol for hope, though that is implied, but also speak of dark, dangerous undercurrents. In the closing moments, as the couple splash out into an idyllic orange sunset, we know what lies in store for them.
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