THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – WHY NOT
Nice calendar match. While the Roland-Garros tournament has just ended, a feature film entirely focused on tennis, is released in theaters: Fifth set, by Quentin Reynaud. Film that does not leave a sole Thomas Edison (Alex Lutz), former great hope of the clay whose failure in the semifinals, seventeen years earlier, has never been digested. But at 37, after a lackluster career, Edison is convinced that he can still win Roland Garros. Against the advice of those around him, he therefore embarked on the qualifying race, always pushing his limits, his body bruised but his mind solid.
Fifth set gives an account of this preparation, step by step, follows the victories game after game, shows the loneliness of the athlete, the opportunism of the environment, the damage that training has on the physique. Quentin Reynaud (co-director, in 2015, with Arthur Delaire, of the comedy Paris-Willouby) knows what he’s talking about, having practiced tennis at a professional level himself. In the field of realism, there is nothing to complain about. No more than on the choice and direction of actor. In this area, he benefits in the person of Alex Lutz from a high-flying interpreter. The latter followed, before the shooting, an intensive training of which he seems to have absorbed every lesson, every gesture, every posture and facial expression. The game is impeccable, with a precision that is astounding as it touches every part of the body.
Trauma of failure
However, Thomas Edison lacks a story, his own, which the film only sketched out – a childhood devoted to tennis, the trauma of failure in the semi-finals, a woman and a child he did not benefit from. – but never deepens. Difficult in these conditions to identify with the character, to take sides, to be moved. Even less, when those around him are reduced to little. Club owner Edison’s mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) thinks, lives, talks tennis and no longer believes in her son’s victory. Edison’s wife (Ana Girardot), meanwhile, wants her husband to give up his career (as she herself once did to raise their son) and now devote himself to his family.
Without this psychological substance which helps to create empathy and to embark the spectator on the side of a character, the film stretches instead of raising the tension. There follows one another, without real rhythm, intimate scenes and matches in the course of which the dramaturgy weakens, the stake disappears. In the end, only the spectacle of an actor’s performance remains. In this area, Alex Lutz is a champion in all categories.
You have 3.65% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.