Les Cinq Diables

The Five Devils is a very nice looking film. It is full of artsy compositions and colorful scenery. It is well performed; the actors are very naturalistic, and no one is over the top or feels unrealistic. The story, on the other hand, is not for everyone. It follows a family at a crossroads when someone from their past returns to town. How each character handles this reappearance makes up most of the runtime. There is a fantastical element, as one character is able to enter moments from the past, but almost everything else is handled very realistically. I was very neutral towards this movie. I was definitely wanting to see where it went, but once it was finished, I was ready to move on. I didn't feel compelled to reflect on what I had seen. I was hoping for more tension or emotion of some sort, but it was all pretty subdued. My opinion is that this one is skippable.

... following the early rave reviews of this film, and the fact that Adele is always interesting.

However, I found a couple of the characters very thin (the husband in particular) and the flashbacks became a bit much for me.

At one level, as with Titane, this is quite an interesting set-up of a highly dysfunctional family, but I just couldn't suspend disbelief enough for some of the action and, in particular, the outcome (as far as I could make it out).

Meanwhile, on the basis of this, I'm sure however that Sally Drame will go on to do some very interesting work - she's a compelling presence here.

Worth a look.

As a premise, it has a mix of elements that called my attention. The trailer shows interesting imagery and characters and the movie lives up to it.

Through the first half I was very curious about what the characters do and how events would develop.

There acting performances are solid throughout, and even if I heard some mixed opinions about the story being all over the place, too much going on and confusing, for me the elements were always clear and the story is quite simple to understand.

There's a little twist at the end that might leave you thinking to figure out what it means, but even if you don't, the story makes perfect sense and it even surprised me with its tone.

The cinematography is ok, nothing special, but the story is interesting and well paced so it kept me entertained from beginning to end.

It's definitely a drama/mystery. There are odd things that happen surrounding the daughter, Vicky, that you aren't suppose understand from the beginning, but will be clear once you reach the end. The story is confusing, because it's meant to be, because the characters have a intense history that you don't know. It's kind of like the sixth sense where you aren't meant to understand everything the 1st time you watch it, but with the sixth sense, you didn't really know you didn't understand everything until the end. I think the problem some people have with this film is, confusing things happen surrounding Vicky, and even at the end, they don't actually have a person say IN WORDS, what's the deal with Vicky, you just have to figure it out, but it's not that hard when you think over every thing you saw. Imagine watching the sixth sense, but they never specifically referenced ghosts, and the kid never said "i see dead people", but all the evidence of him seeing dead people was there.

Les Cinq Diables, from director Léa Mysius, begins with intrigue but never fully delivers on its concept. Adèle Exarchopoulos is magnetic in every scene, and Sally Dramé rivals Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) as the cutest kid ever. If this movie shines for any one reason, it is that we get to spend 96 minutes with these two.

The story and storytelling, however, are the weakest links. For a good chunk of the film, the story sort of meanders without any real sort of tension, presumably to tease out the mystery. Some plot points end up going nowhere, the climax that gets supernaturally pieced together doesn't pack the punch it seems it is going for, and I think a lot more could have been done to bring the themes home and make it far more powerful. In a way it reminds me of a Jacques Audiard film in the way it unloads a lot of rich theme but does not tie it down neatly for the viewer--which may be frustrating for some audiences and thought-provoking for others.

Les Cinq Diables is an ambitious film that lays decent groundwork but never seems to find its footing. It may leave enough for some interesting discussion on the interface between sexuality and relationships through the eyes of the innocent, but its clever approach more often gets entangled in subpar storytelling and a loosely-threaded plot.

Watch it for the cute kid and for the goddess Adele. Skip if you desire a more cohesive narrative.