5x2 (Cinco veces dos)

Vete a tomar una cerveza con un amigo mayor, casado o divorciado, y lo tendrás de primera mano, gratis y sin comprometer el disfrute de un trabajo cinematográfico interesante. Ozon escribió y rodó su ficticio «documental matrimonial» como una película para la tele: formalmente sobria y carente de interés, sin contenido y aburrida. En películas como Intimidad o La pianista al menos se abordaba algo. Nada se resuelve en esta película, y su motor son solo momentos psicológicos bien definidos que no conducen a ninguna parte, es decir, algo que en una película completa y con guión reelaborado «solo» cumple el papel de pegamento en medio del drama real. Pero los actores son agradablemente realistas en todo momento y la película tiene una conclusión muy bonita. (24.03.2005)

I can't help but feel like 5x2 was a theater play the whole time. That was mainly because the director and screenwriter François Ozon conceived the film in five acts, each of which presented two identical people. However, whether it is the initial divorce (in reverse chronological order), raising the son, his birth, the wedding, or the final encounter, every time it feels like the viewer is witnessing completely different people. Yet there was something missing in these five main points of marital cohabitation. I missed the coherence of the plot that unfolding before my eyes. In fact, the scenes could be used as a good basis for a TV miniseries, rather than as a single feature film. The connection between them is left for the viewer to imagine, and although it's not difficult to do so – Ozon truly excelled as a director – this "connection" should have been the main focal point of his "pushing the envelope." This leaves the viewer with five episodes to watch without the slightest interest, because the film as a whole lacks any atmosphere and any "focal point" in which we could form a relationship with the characters. In fact, this film is so self-absorbed and self-indulgent that it doesn't really need anything or anyone, including the viewer. And that's really as solid as 5x2 equaling 10. That’s too bad because something could have been done with the one. (08.07.2005)

Whether the characters are getting to know each other, taking, suffering, or divorcing, they behave so foolishly that not even the most contradictory psyche or life obstacles can excuse it. It's hard to believe that a film that delves so deeply into the intimacy of a relationship can be so unpleasantly cold and alienated. (19.02.2006)