Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

American writer/lecturer Tom Ricks (Ethan Hawke) comes to Paris desperate to reconnect with his daughter. He's not wanted by his ex. He ends up in a dilapidated hotel where the manager Sezer is holding his passport hostage. He works for the unsavory character watching a door. His neighbor is a threatening brute. Then he meets Margit (Kristin Scott Thomas) at a literary party. They have an affair. He's stalking his little girl. He has another affair with the café girl which could cause him trouble with Sezer.This is trying to be an atmospheric moody mystery thriller. The pacing is too slow to be thrilling. The atmosphere is indie adjacent and a little dreary. It could be much more moody and stylish. The one thing that this movie desperately needs is energy. Ethan Hawke is decidedly angry and tired. Writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski has a certain style here, and it grinds away at the movie. It's a movie that is trying to come up with something compelling.

The American professor of literature and novelist Tom Hicks (Ethan Hawke) travels to Paris to see his beloved daughter Chloé (Julie Papillon) that lives with her mother Nathalie (Delphine Chuillot). However, Nathalie uses the restraining order to call the police and avoid letting Tom to meet Chloé. Tom flees from the police and takes a bus but he is tired and sleeps. When he awakes in a poor neighborhood, he finds that his luggage and money were robbed. He goes to a bar and the Polish waitress Ania (Joanna Kulig) brings a coffee for him. He asks for a room and explains that he had been robbed and she asks him to talk with the owner Sezer (Samir Guesmi) that allows him to stay in a very low budget room and pay him later. Then Sezer offers a job of night watchman in a suspect building. One day, Tom goes to a bookstore and is invited to a party with writers where he meets Margit Kadar (Kristin Scott Thomas), who is a translator and widow of a Hungarian writer. She gives her address and telephone to Tom. Soon Tom has a love affair with Margit at her apartment and with Ania on the roof of the bar. But Tom is also obsessed by his daughter, snooping around Chloé during the days. When his next door neighbor at the hotel that is blackmailing Tom is found dead, his only alibi is Margit. But when the police officers go to her place, they discover that she had committed suicide many years ago."La femme du Vème" is one of those movies like "Triangle" where there is no explanation for bizarre and surrealistic situations. I am not sure whether the director Pawel Pawlikowski had this intention or not, but forget any explanation about the plot and simply enjoy (or not) the movie. David Lynch is the master of this style while Claude Chabrol was the French master of thrillers with open endings to make the viewer think and discuss possibilities. But this is the practically unknown Pawel Pawlikowski and I was disappointed with the lack of conclusion of the good plot. But as an unconditional fan of Kristin Scott Thomas and Ethan Hawke, I do not regret this strange experience. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Estranha Obsessão" ("Weird Obsession")

OK, forgive me, I don't mean to be a snot. But please, gimme a break.At one point Margit's character explicitly mentions his "Polish Muse." Long before that, it occurred to me that this is about exactly that - the ancient and mythic, and therefore essentially human phenomenon of the artist (in this case a writer) and the influence of The Muse.The movie is a meditation and dramatization of what it may take for a serious artist/writer to move beyond drudgery and into the world of artistic "reality." It may mean loss and isolation. It may mean rejection by societal norms. It usually DOES mean transgression. It may mean even insanity, intoxication, and exile from the comforts of home and family.I'm not saying all those are GOOD things, or preferable. I'm just saying that for many a great artist those are the prices paid in order to dwell in a world where things can be said which enlighten the rest of us.Evil may be involved. One's sense of identity. Procreation may be less a matter of one's familial offspring than one's creative progeny.The main character's entrapment (symbolically imaged as like an insect trapped in a web - Kafka knew this) may be like the artist's entrapment in the world of commercial publishers, agents, gallery owners, etc.Ultimately, the hero makes a choice - the same choice seduced and commanded by the "Woman in the Fifth" who is not actually of "this world." He must be hers - she will inspire him, and he will be enthralled to her.Any artists care to reply?

While Ethan Hawke is not one of my favorite actors, Kirstin Scott-Thomas is. This is not to say I don't like Hawke, though if this were the only film of his I'd seen, I wouldn't want to see another. This film is the only one of Scott-Thomas that I haven't liked. So, how could these two actors be in such a flop? I actually turned it off about two thirds of the way through, too bored to continue. I found myself wondering how much time was taken up in loooong camera shots. As the character played by Ethan Hawke screws his way back and forth between two women, not too much else happens. The characters I found to be pretentious (especially K. Scott-Thomas's character) and predictable. If you're considering watching The Woman in the Fifth, don't waste your time.