Movie review: ‘5 to 7’

Judging from its premise, 5 to 7 sounds like it’s going to be at least a little bit raunchy. A single, twentysomething guy in New York falls for a married, thirtysomething French woman who can only be with him from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. because, well, there is that whole husband thing.

Instead, writer/director Victor Levin, making his feature debut, has made a sweet and reserved, New York-set love story that is occasionally undermined by a lack of urgency and a script that sounds more like a screenwriter rather than real people. But the strong cast, a beautiful score, and a surprisingly affecting ending make it more convincing that it seems at first.

Brian (Anton Yelchin, Star Trek) is the twentysomething, an unsuccessful writer who’s totally captivated one day when he sees Arielle (Berenice Marlohe, Skyfall) smoking on the street. The two strike up a conversation -- and a relationship. She is married to Valery (Lambert Wilson) but they have an open marriage. Her husband has a mistress (Olivia Thirlby) and is fine with Brian as long as certain rules are followed: Arielle’s dalliances must be resticted to those particular two hours a day.

However, Brian wants more than that and that’s when things get complicated.

Marlohe is convincingly seductive, Yelchin is believably naive, while Glenn Close and Frank Langella are enjoyably combative as his parents. 5 to 7 doesn’t break any new ground as a love story but it walks familiar territory with surprising grace.

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This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Movie review: ‘5 to 7’."