In a genre of love/marriage affairs, it is a film about 4 protagonists immersed in the psychological discomfort of love, sex, lust, anger and revenge (a London version of and far more sophisticated than "5x2"). Director Mike Nichols establishes an in-depth psychological portray of the characters and builds up narrative parallels (as well as visual parallels) to depict the vicious behaviours among the four. Right at the early sequences, Nichols adopts the cinematographic language of shots/reverse shots (with spatial distance) to connote the psychological distancing between Dan (Jude Law) and Anna (Julia Roberts).

The affairs of the 4 are told in an unrestricted narrative (i.e., the viewer knows almost everything) so that the viewer grasps the dilemma and inner turmoil of the protagonists. The use of subtle and concise dialogues as well as the precipitation of a few humours further makes the story much more readable. The perplexity and intrinsic psychology of the characters are sufficiently portrayed especially in the second half (where the pace accelerates) under cross editing. All actors stage very well. Although the film comes with some dirty (indecent/sex) dialogues which assist the narrative, visuals are clean (except for the table dancing sequence with seductive posture & frontal female nudity in blurred image in the background). It is probably the intention of Nichols to subdue the indecent visuals and replace them by dirty conversation/communication (i.e., ICQ between Dan and Larry (Clive Owen)). As far as vertical intertextuality (i.e., similar genres in the same media) is concerned, Nichols is different from Ozon who intensifies the sex visuals in "5x2". This is a "must see" for viewers who really enjoy watching affairs movies.