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.

A completely confusing story. I found myself throughout the film trying to decipher what the director wanted us to understand but I had trouble understanding even at the end. Unlike other films that I did not understand the end like Lost Highway (I understood that it was a film that deserved to be reviewed a second time to understand) but for this film I do not think it will help me to see more clearly. The trailer was strange, the film even more so. The film wants to be implicit voluntarily but instead create a kind of confusion with this kid who smells odors and seems to be transported to another time. This results in a rather disjointed writing with sequences that seem to be just an excuse to see Johanne in cleavage or scantily dressed. We also talk about sex in the film, something that I appreciate. We also understand that there is a secret relationship between Julia and Johanne. I felt completely confused. A story that has neither head nor tail. Then at the end the young girl we see, I don't understand who she is. In short, an implicit film and not so cerebral as that but simply confused in its transmission. Rather disappointing.