5 to 7 is a 2014 American romantic film written and directed by Victor Levin and starring Anton Yelchin, Bérénice Marlohe, Olivia Thirlby, Lambert Wilson, Frank Langella, Glenn Close and Eric Stoltz. Yelchin plays Brian, a 24-year-old writer who has an affair with a 33-year-old married French woman, Arielle (Marlohe). Arielle and her middle-aged husband, Valéry (Wilson), have an agreement allowing them to have extramarital affairs as long as they are confined to the hours between 5 and 7 p.m.
The film's premise was inspired by a French couple in an open marriage whom Levin met in the 1980s. Though he completed the film's first draft in 2007, the project remained in development for seven further years due to casting issues. Diane Kruger was initially cast as Arielle but was replaced by Marlohe. Filming began in May 2013 in New York City and mainly took place on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The film's score was composed by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans.
5 to 7 was premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 19, 2014. It was also screened at the 2014 Traverse City Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best American Film. The film was released theatrically on April 3, 2015 by IFC Films. It grossed $674,579 at the worldwide box office and received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
Brian Bloom (Anton Yelchin), a struggling 24-year-old writer in New York City, meets a 33-year-old French woman named Arielle Pierpont (Bérénice Marlohe). They feel powerfully attracted to one another.
After their second meeting, Arielle reveals that she is married to a much older diplomat, Valéry (Lambert Wilson), and they have two young children. Arielle and Valéry have an agreement that each is permitted to have extramarital affairs as long as they are limited to the time between 5 and 7 p.m. on weeknights. Brian is perplexed at this information and tells Arielle that he cannot continue to see her, believing it to be unethical. She says that, should he change his mind, she will continue to smoke on Fridays at the same place they met.
After three weeks Brian decides to meet again with Arielle. She gives him a hotel key and in the evening at the hotel room they consummate their relationship. They begin to meet regularly at the same hotel room in the evenings.
Valéry, who is aware of Brian's affair with Arielle, approaches him on the street and invites him to his house for dinner. There, Brian meets Arielle and Valéry's children and is introduced to Valéry's lover, 25-year-old editor Jane (Olivia Thirlby). Arielle later meets Brian's parents, Sam (Frank Langella) and Arlene (Glenn Close). Upon learning that she is an older, married mother of two, Sam tells Brian that he disapproves of the relationship, while Arlene accepts that they love each other despite the circumstances.
When Brian is invited to a New Yorker ceremony to receive an award for one of his short stories, he is joined by Arielle, Valéry, Jane, and his parents. Jane tells Brian that her boss Galassi (Eric Stoltz), a publisher, has read his story and wants him to write a novel.
Brian meets Arielle at the hotel and asks her to marry him, giving her a ring. He insists that he is truly in love with her, and Arielle accepts his proposal, telling him to meet her the next day at the hotel. Valéry shows up at Brian's apartment that night, slapping him and expressing anger at his betrayal of the rules and boundaries of an open marriage. He then gives Brian a check for $250,000 for Brian to give Arielle the life she deserves, and he leaves.
The next day, the hotel doorman gives Brian a letter from Arielle. In it she explains that, although she loves him deeply, she cannot leave her husband and children, and asks him not to contact her again.
Jane later ends her relationship with Valéry because it feels like a betrayal of her friendship with Brian, and Brian's first novel is published by Galassi. After some years, Brian is walking down the street with his wife, Kiva (Jocelyn DeBoer), and their two-year-old son. They run into Arielle, Valéry and their now-teenage children outside the Guggenheim. Valéry asks about Jane, and Brian tells him that she is married with a son. Arielle shows him subtly that she still wears the ring he gave to her before they part again.