La femme du Vème 2011

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: This pensive, seductive drama is full of devious strategies, which begin with its protagonist's name: T. Ricks. Tricks. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Although Mr. Pawlikowski often shows Mr. Hawke in medium and long shots, the actor draws you close. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: I wouldn't have minded a little more time with these characters, before they faded away into the gray Paris sidewalks. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Fifth feels like a literary bauble, chipped by imperfections. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: The movie casts such a seductive air of mystery that the resolution feels anticlimactic, yet there's plenty to enjoy along the way, particularly Hawke's nuanced lead performance as a quiet man with secrets of his own. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: "The Woman in the Fifth" leaves so many holes unfilled that instead of ending up intriguing, it's just plain frustrating. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: [Pawlikowski] creates a nice sense of paranoia and multicultural bewilderment that's the welcome tonal opposite of Woody Allen's romanticized Midnight in Paris fripperies. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: A thankless lead vehicle for Ethan Hawke who's left largely stranded by writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski's opaque adaptation of Douglas Kennedy's novel. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It is guaranteed to haunt you for awhile. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: The Woman in the Fifth fairly oozes enigma; if only it could drum up something to be enigmatic about. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Pawlikowski can't decide what to do with his protagonist, whose writer's block is the least of his emotional burdens. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Pawel Pawlikowski's great-looking but pretentious adaptation of a Douglas Kennedy novel. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: When do we first sense reality slip away? Do we? Can the film be accepted on its own terms? Can the point of view be trusted? Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: [It's] watchable and enjoyable, but it's fairly impenetrable, and it gets more peculiar as it goes along. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Those who prefer tidy, "Murder, She Wrote" closure are advised to shop elsewhere. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The Woman in the Fifth is an interesting chameleon until it runs out of disguises, and all that was transitory just looks transparent. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Grief and a cruel search for companionship and belonging hang painfully over the film and work to counter some of its more frustrating loose ends and anti-climaxes. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: You realize you've been watching an object that's all surface, no soul. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: We are never sure if what we are seeing is actually happening, including the nature scenes that Pawlikowski interjects as contrast to the urban jungle - and also as a symbol of man's animal nature. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: You're not sure what this is till it's over, but certainly Hawke's performance is his nerviest and most sincere in a decade. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: It's a curio, ripe with dreamy atmospherics and intriguing mysteries, but little else. Read more