Instant Favorite.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Mr. World? Where are you? Are you full of life? Are you full of grief? What is thine disposition? The writer holds the gate to the world. He opens the gate to the inner society of the mind. Writer! Tell us what is wrong with the world. We want to know. Is it in harmony? Is a dark encroaching fog about to envelop us all? Mr. Writer...tell us what's wrong with your world.....Express your inner torment...share it. We want to feel it to. We want to know we aren't alone in our suffering. Tell us....what is in that room...that room that no one is allowed to go in. The thing I like best about this movie is it doesn't try to do too much. It's very low-key. The symbolism is very strong but it doesn't shove it in your face. I think you have to be an artist to get this.

Gotta problem here! Have no idea whatsoever what this movie was all about. Yet I enjoyed it. The photography, the grim background music, the seamy surroundings in the gritty underbelly of Paris, the many angry, brooding characters, combine to create a foreboding and ominous mood. Technically the film is a masterpiece. But what the hell is it all about??? A rather screwed up American writer goes to Paris and gets even more screwed up. What was going on in the mysterious underground bunker? Who committed the murder and what was the motive? Was their any explanation of the 1992 suicide? What was the stuff in the forest all about? Who was the woman? What actually happened to the little girl? Where did our mixed up writer go at the end? You know from the early scenes that nobody will be living happily ever after. Indeed there is some reason to believe a couple of them won't even live at all! (Deliberately vague here to keep the spoilers as fuzzy as possible.) And why are there so many trains, train tracks and train sounds? If you like to analyze camera angles and have an interest in film production, you'll enjoy it the way I did. If you like artsey dartsey symbolism and long discussions about what it all means, this is your film. If you want to be entertained, avoid it. If you don't want to get depressed and suicidal, avoid it like the plague. Really odd but very well done film!

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.

Polish-born screenwriter and director Pawel Pawlikowski's fourth feature film which he wrote, is an adaptation of a novel from 2007 by American writer Douglas Kennedy. It was screened in the Special Presentations section at the 36th Toronto International Film Festival in 2011 and is a France-Poland-UK co-production which was shot on locations in Paris, France and produced by producers Caroline Banjo and Carole Scotta. It tells the story about Tom Ricks, an American university professor and writer who goes to Paris, France where his ex-wife Nathalie and their adolescent daughter Chloe lives. He gets himself a room at a place run by a man named Mr. Sezer and tries to get in touch with his daughter, but due to a restraining order he has to find ways to see his daughter without being noticed by Nathalie. While searching for opportunities to rekindle with Chloe, Tom befriends a Polish woman and at a literary gathering he meets a woman named Margit who intrigues him.Precisely and finely directed by Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski, this finely paced fictional tale which is narrated from the protagonist's point of view, draws a moving portrayal of a struggling writer's relationship with his young daughter, a friendly waitress and a mysterious widow. While notable for it's atmospheric milieu depictions, fine production design by production designer Benoit Barouch, cinematography by Polish cinematographer Rysznard Lenczewski, editing by film editor David Charap and use of colors which emphasizes it's poignant atmosphere, this character-driven psychological thriller depicts an intriguing an internal study of character and contains a good score by British composer Max De Wardener.This somewhat surreal, somewhat romantic, literary and enigmatic neo-noir where the story is going on as much inside the main character's mind as in the city of Paris, is impelled and reinforced by it's subtle character development, interrelating stories, cogent narrative structure, the understated and refined acting performances by American actor, writer and director Ethan Hawke, English actress Kristin Scott Thomas and the notable acting performance by Julie Papillon, as the protagonist's daughter, in her debut feature film role. A condensed and at times esoteric mystery.