A budding young writer in need of life experience finds the perfect muse on the streets of New York; a sophisticated, older French woman who suggests they have a "cinq-a-sept", an affair that takes place between the hours of 5am and 7pm.
This debut feature from writer director Victor Levin, a well-known television writer and producer (Mad Men, Mad About You), is an elegant and enjoyable, but it's also a romance born out of wishful thinking.
Twenty-four-year-old Brian Bloom (Yelchin) is an unemployed, unpublished writer who can somehow afford to live in New York where he decorates his apartment with rejection letters. One Friday afternoon he spots a beautiful woman having a cigarette outside the St Regis Hotel. He crosses the street and proceeds to charm Arielle (Skyfall's Berenice Marlohe) with his high school French.
Arielle, 9 years older than Brian, tells Brian she's married to a French diplomat and has two children and suggests the 5-to-7 relationship. Shocked, Brian struggles to reconcile Arielle's open marriage with his conservative views, based on his parent's lengthy marriage.
As the inevitable affair plays out, Brian finds himself in numerous awkward encounters involving meeting Arielle's husband Valery (Lambert Wilson), Arielle meeting his parents - played to perfection by a charming Glenn Close and Frank Langella - and babysitting Arielle's kids. A clash of ideals and a clash of cultures, Levin's characters represent their nation's views on love and life - ranging from the cliched to the astute and witty. The dialogue is made up of a collection of sayings and metaphors rather than real life day to day chatter, with a good proportion of them eliciting a chuckle.
