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Friday, June 15, 2012
MOVIE REVIEW
The Woman In The Fifth
Murderer's Memoirs? Mental Illness? Woman In Black?
Kristin Scott Thomas as Margit and Ethan Hawke as Tom in Pawel Pawlikowski's
mystery drama "The Woman In The Fifth". ATO
Pictures
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Friday, June 15, 2012
Just in time for Father's Day,
Pawel Pawlikowski's "The Woman In The Fifth", a tender if jarring chronicle
about fathers and daughters which opened today in numerous cities in the U.S.
and Canada, is a thriller told either: a) through the eyes of a dead man, or, b)
a Hitchcockian drama about mental illness and distortion, or, c) a film about an
unreliable narrator. The answer lies somewhere in the three choices. Mr.
Pawlikowski's film is based on Douglas Kennedy's novel of the same name.
Ethan Hawke is Tom, an American writer and college lecturer estranged from his
French wife and daughter Chloe. In Paris for an unauthorized visit to see
Chloe, Tom is slightly off-kilter. He will soon lose his luggage and grip
on reality as he stumbles through a cleverly-staged noir by Mr. Pawlikowski, who
wrote the screenplay. David Charap's editing offers glimpses of the
reality that surrounds the troubled Tom, a man prone to outbursts. Tom was
sick in hospital, he tells Chloe, bristling at the notion he was in prison.
With no money Tom stays at a dank, squalid Parisian hostel owned and inhabited
by some shady types.
The equilibrium of Tom is further challenged when Margit (Kristin Scott Thomas),
a mysterious, apparition-like figure in black, saunters and floats through a
room of people. She knows a lot about Tom, and may have a thing or two in
common with him. Arresting, highly attractive and sensual as a muse-like
Margit, Ms. Thomas adds layers of intrigue, suspense and keeps you guessing.
Her eyes show and hide so much at the same time, and though her character is
essentially a one-note player supplied as a vehicle to move along an otherwise
unremarkable film, Ms. Thomas, whose Margit wears red or black only, lends great
weight and value. "You don't know what you're capable of," she tells Tom,
who lapses into periods of dream fantasy. Unfortunately "The Woman In The
Fifth" doesn't know what to do with Margit, particularly in its final,
disappointing few minutes.
Symbolically, and in its atmosphere "The Woman In The Fifth" works fairly well
up to a point as an effectual drama, even if it verges on stylistic overkill and
self-conscious overtures to the Master of Suspense. A frequently-glimpsed
owl appears to be a mediator of truth. Eyeglasses, mirrors, and glass are
often tilted. Tom's Ray-Ban eyeglasses are situated slightly awkwardly on
his face. These prisms of refraction and clarity are sometimes obfuscated
and blurred just enough, as is the first image of the film, which perhaps holds
the clues to its entirety.
Mr. Pawlikowski isn't short on artistic flair, nor does he shy away from showing
us that he's a learned student of Mr. Hitchcock and Ingmar Bergman, among
others. Yet other than its setting and scenery there's little else with
which to wow us. That's a shame, because there's decent acting from the
sincere, self-serious and ponderous Mr. Hawke, speaking fluent French as Tom, a
man wandering through the murky, make-believe novel in his own mind.
Tom wants to believe he's a saint, a good father and husband, but the subtleties
and not-so subtle aspects of "The Woman In The Fifth" appear to indicate
otherwise. Is Tom dead? Is he a murderer? Is he a tragic
figure? "Everything I touch I destroy," Tom says at one point. He
narrates letters he writes to Chloe but the voice Tom reads in sounds vaguely
regretful. Tom continuously views Chloe through bars and his own fanciful imagination.
Mr. Hawke's work is far better here than in "Taking Lives", an Andrew Davis film
of a few years ago that starred
Angelina Jolie. There are similarities in
the films, though there's a ghoulish, cartoonish aspect to Mr. Davis' film that
surpasses anything in "The Woman In The Fifth", a film that is careful, curious
and calculating.
With:
Joanna Kulig, Samir Guesmi,
Delphine Chuillot, Julie Papillon, Mamadou Minté.
"The Woman In The Fifth" is rated
R by
the Motion Picture Association Of America for some sexual content, language and
violent images. The film is in English and French languages with English
subtitles. The film's
running time is one hour and 23 minutes.
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