2 + 2 Explained: What’s Up With the Ending?

The meaning of the movie 2 + 2 (2012). People have stereotypes about Latin relationship movies. Associations with a huge number of soap operas immediately pop up in my head, where the main characters suffer, so that in the end everything ends with a wedding. Argentinean melodrama “2 + 2” was created as if specifically to destroy stereotypes about Latin American cinema. The genre of this picture is designated as melodrama (very canonical for Latin America, but this is not the point of the film) and comedy (if this is a comedy, then it is very sad and philosophical). Let’s take a closer look at the plot features and the metaphorical explanation of the film, its message.

What is the movie 2 + 2 about

The plot is as follows: two long-established married couples are friends, spend time together, have fun. One of them already has a teenage child, life goes on a knurled track. However, as often happens in married couples with long-term relationships, everything is not at all as smooth as it seems at first glance. Ideal, it would seem, couples are infected with unbearable boredom. They know each other inside and out, they have nothing to surprise each other with. This applies, not least, to their sex life.

One day, one of the couples, in which the relationship developed outwardly better, admitted that they attend swingers parties.

Swingers are people who practice the exchange of regular partners for one-time sex. Several couples choose a partner for the night from a swinger club or group sex is practiced. Such relationships are created in order to bring sexual diversity into the lives of permanent partners.

The girl of the protagonist lights up with the idea of ​​trying sex with other partners, while expressing a desire to have sex with her friends. The man is extremely worried about this development. To him, such sexual freedom seems immoral, and the behavior of his lady of the heart is very suspicious. Since the character of a man is obviously weaker than his wife, he eventually succumbs to persuasion and joins this “interest club”.

Later, the main character finds out that his wife is in love with his friend and this is mutual, they meet outside the framework of swinger parties. Married couples make a scandal, temporarily interrupt both family friendship and life together.

The meaning of the movie 2 + 2

At first glance, it seems that the message of the film is expressed by the words of one of the characters: “Step over prejudices. This is a journey of feelings, ”but psychologically everything is much more complicated.

First of all, let’s look at the features of the pairs. The protagonist is a surgeon, and his wife Emilia keeps a weather forecast. In their couple, the woman has a stronger character, but the man is more receptive to feelings, and also has a stronger moral core.

The second pair seems to be a mirror image of the first (this is emphasized by the fact that the man in it is also a surgeon). But, as in a mirror image, the external similarity hides the absolute inversion of the situation – a charismatic and bright man connected his life with an attractive and good-natured, but rather mediocre woman.

By this, the directors seem to show the “confusion” of couples, as if the families are not quite properly staffed. A bright woman should be with a charismatic man, and a sensitive man would be more suitable for a good-natured and cheerful woman.

Next comes another important key to understanding the film, the leitmotif word “suspicious”, its characters repeat very often.

It is precisely the readiness of his wife to enter into such a bold sexual relationship that seems suspicious to the protagonist, he sees behind this not only the desire for diversity, but also something else that is not fully understood by him due to the lack of information. This atmosphere of understatement pervades the entire film.

In addition to the theme of love, the film raises another important issue – friendship. Long-term family relationships required the introduction of new colors, but the friendship of two couples needed new sensations no less. Joint trips to swinger parties became this new stage in the development of their interaction.

And one more important point, which is often overlooked. You can not take the love of the wife of the protagonist and his friend as the root cause of everything that happened. No matter how suspicious Emilia’s consent may seem, for her it was really just a search for a new one from the very beginning. She fell in love later, just “playing too much”. The heroine responds to the accusation of breaking the rules of the swingers that they broke all the rules in the first place, so how was she supposed to know where to stop?

This is the main message – a slight rebellion against the norms of society is interesting, but how to understand when a rebellion against the rules imposed by society turns into a violation of one’s own moral rules?

At the end of the film, the characters of the film meet two years later at the cinema. The families reconciled, but apparently the friendship between the couples never recovered. It turns out that the meaning of the ending is that love survived everything, but friendship did not stand the test of group sex.

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