Customer Reviews

Km.0

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Kilometer Zero (Km.0) is a wonderful Spanish import about how missed connections and fate can alter your life path. Fourteen people are drawn to the title spot at the center of Madrid for various assignations on one of the hottest day of the year. A young film director arrives in town, looking to share an apartment with an actress friend of his sister. The actress, intent on kickstarting her career, spots a famous producer and hatches a plan to get his attention. A down-on-her-luck hooker arranges to meet an inexperienced groom-to-be to conduct some business. A dancer uses the internet to connect with a sex partner. A middle-aged businessman's neglected wife fills her hours of boredom by hiring a gigolo. The gigolo's roommate, a gay man, longs for a lover rather than just another sexual partner. In the heat, patience evaporates and fate intervenes, leading to numerous missed connections and mistaken identities. Several locals become drawn into the mix as well, including a local bartender who dreams of owning his own business; the bartender's shallow, robbery-prone fiancée and her younger sister; a police officer with impulse control issues; and a mysterious stranger who seems rather bemused by the whole scenario.

The film is extremely European in tone, and very unlike similar-themed American and British comedies. Sexuality is celebrated in all forms, including physical relations between older women and younger men, friendly intimacy and flirting between straight men and gay men, and the goal of helping a prostitute to earn what she's worth, rather than rescuing her from the profession. Sex scenes are fun and erotic without becoming overly graphic, human frailties are addressed without judgment, and taboo topics of concern are touched upon as plot points before being clarified as misunderstandings. The cast is uniformly attractive and up to the challenge, the script does an excellent job of interweaving the various characters and storylines, and the direction and production values are first rate. If you enjoy films that are politically incorrect, brazen, and very, very sexy, you'll have a great time meeting up with the crowd at Kilometer Zero.

Km.0, a sweet-natured and gloriously vibrant Spanish film, is perhaps possessed of one of the most beautiful looking casts that I've ever seen in a movie. Full of pretty men, and women, Km.0 is all about the importance of serendipity and providence, and that life's choices and coincidences can sneak up on you, just when you least expect it.

It's August, and Madrid is absolutely sweltering. In fact, it's so hot that everyone, distracted by the heat, is prone to getting his or her connections scrambled. When fourteen separate people show up for arranged liaisons at central Madrid's Puerta del Sol, where the street marker reads Kilometer Zero, they end up loving and connecting in ways that they never intended to.

Paths unexpectedly intersect, misunderstandings are randomly accepted, new relationships are formed, and the steamy heat raises new passions in a fluid dance of sex and love. The plot is contrived and the idea is far from original, but producers Juan Luis Iborra and Yolanda García Serrano, imbue the proceedings with such a fresh-faced effervescence, that the movie's shortcomings fail to diminish its many free-spirited and bubbly moments.

The neurotic hooker, Tatiana (Elisa Matilla) arranges to meet Sergio (Alberto San Juan), a nervous virgin, and ends up instead with Pedro, a young student (Carlos Fuentes) who fancies himself as a film director. After nearly being run down by him, Silvia (Mercé Pons), highly-strung actress tries to get a temperamental producer (Georges Corraface) to give her an audition.

In the same diner where this takes place, the diner's owner (Alberto San Juan) rebuffs the advances of his fiancée's underage sister, while said fiancée, Amor (Silke Klein) goes shopping and gets repeatedly robbed. Amor eventually gets tangled up with Roma (Cora Tiedra) and a love-struck policeman (Roberto Álamo).

Meanwhile, Miguel (Jesús Cabrero), a hunky gigolo, trysts with Marga, (Concha Valasco), an older woman who is unhappily married, while Miguel's gay roommate, Benjamín (Miguel García), takes advantage of a case of mistaken identity to have sex with a horny flamenco dancer (Victor Ullate Jr.). Tatiana ends up taking sex advice from Máximo (Armando del Río), the easygoing gay guy, and the original man who missed his computer date with the flamenco dancer.

At first glance, all the connections may seem a little confusing, but the pacing is steady and the characters larger than life, so you never have that much trouble following all the diverse episodes. There are also various subplots that effectively bounce off each intersection of the characters: Marga discovers she has a long-abandoned child; Pedro gives Tatiana a makeover from a cheap to a high-priced whore; and Máximo has a strange transformation into some kind of real, rather than figurative, guardian angel.

As with a lot of films that come out of Spain, Km.0 has a great deal of excessively overt confessional dialogue, so viewers who don't speak Spanish really have to pay attention to the subtitles. I also wouldn't read much into the sexual polemics of Km.0. Is it a romantic comedy? Well, perhaps, but it's probably more of a romantic drama, where the topic of sex pops up every moment that it can.

Whatever the case, Km.0 has a refreshingly earnest sexual frankness, which is both hip and cute at the same time. And let's not forget the absolutely beautiful cast - Km.0 is totally worth watching just for all the sexy actors alone. Mike Leonard. August 05.

It seems we are in a time for the release of many fine Spanish films and the release of the DVD KILOMETER.0 is one of the best. Directed by Yolanda Garcia Serrano and Juan Luis Ibarra (yes, two directors and perhaps that is why the story is so equally cognizant of the female/male interpretation of relationships), this beautifully paced, hilarious, touching, tender comedy has it all. 'Km.0' is the very center of Madrid and serves as a coincidental meeting point for each of the 14 characters in the story. Mistaken identities, curious consequences, chance fortunes and misfortunes, surprise discoveries all collide and the result is a fun and entertaining farce that keeps your attention through the film. Each of the characters (a prostitute, a novice film director, gay men out for internet encounters, hustlers, middle aged needy women, sisters at opposite ends of the values spectrum, a sexually uptight fiancee, a needy bartender, a frustrated actress/singer, a guardian angel, etc) is well fleshed out and everyone of these disparate characters finds the entry to our heart at the end of a day. The cast is uniformly excellent: each one finds the center of the character so that we know the characters as well as we know our best friends. The musical score is a delight, the views of Madrid and the funky interiors of the various rendezvous all are imaginatively colorful, and the sensitivity of the two directors is secure and mature. This is a little marvel of a film is well worth buying for your permanent collection. In Spanish with English subtitles.

"Meeting a stranger in a public place + mistaken identity = hillarity." It's a premise that has been used in romantic comedy films for 40 years, but it is given a creatively modern and deliciously diverse twist in "Km.0" (Kilometer Zero), a 2000 romantic comedy set in Madrid. Fourteen diverse people, including an engaged couple, a nervous man looking for his first sexual experience, a hooker, a would-be director and a would-be actress, a rich matron looking for a fling without her neglectful husband, a musical producer, all plan to meet someone at the landmark spot in that city at the same time, and everyone ends up spending time with someone other than who they planned to meet.

It's a fast-paced, creative and warmly captivating farce, showing how people's lives can unexpectedly intersect and affect each other for good. The characters, and the actors that play them, are genuine and likeable, and the direction and photography are excellent. If there is to be one central moral of the story, it must be "Life goes on...and so do you", with subplots involving reluctant grooms, a mother-and-son "reunion" that doesn't go as she planned, one that could be titled "Queer Guardian Angel for the Straight Guy," and kind of a reverse "Pretty Woman" story. Not a gay film, but the gay characterizations are positive and endearing. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Thank Goodness for European Cinema!! Leave the fantastical budgets, and astounding special effects to the likes of hollywood! This is a movie about humanity, human emotion, and the interaction and development of wonderful characters. The plot is wonderful, there are 12 characters, and all of them are important but it is not, in the least, convoluted. The characters are all well fleshed out and developed, and one can not help but feel empathy, sympathy for each and every one of them. The story involves the characters having independently made arrangements to meet (they do not all know one another, they are meeting in pairs) but they are all meeting at the same spot, the famous Kilometer 0, at the Puerta Del Sol! Confusion for characters ensues, allowing the viewer to see the wonderful mulitdimensionality of them. It is a fast paced and consuming movie. It is in spanish, but has english and french subtitles, ad the wonderful acting does, in many ways, transcend the language barrier. I watched it with a friend who speaks no spanish and he liked it as much as I. There is a love story for everyone in this film, gay or straight. There are relationships other than love and lust as well, and the ecclectic mix of characters makes for a wonderful and transforming film. I encourage all film fans, and fans of humanity and the human condition to buy (or at the very least rent) this film. It is worth while, and can easily be watched more than once.

There are different pairs in this movie, a student with a flamenco dancer, a middle age lady with a gigolo, an actress with a director, a young man with a whore, a business man with a man cruising for gay dates, a young girl with a policeman and a bartender with the sister of his fiance. All of them in a way or the other will meet at Km. 0, a central place of Madrid, and more or less all of them will meet with the wrong partner that in the end will prove to be the perfect one.

The only real "gay" couple is Benjamin and Bruno, meeting by chance while Bruno was supposed to be the one night stand of someone else. Benjamin claims to be interested only in sex, but when Bruno is ready to go, after their trist, Benjamin comes out like the romantic man he is, only that Bruno has committment issues he will need to overcome.

I quite liked also the pair about the middle age woman with the gigolo. Both of them are more deep than expected. But truth be told all the couples are nice on their own, with an interesting story that you can easily follow and understand, something difficult to manage having only 1 hour and half, 7 couples and 14 characters.

Nice movie, not strictly gay; in a way a proof that in Spain being gay is "ordinary", there is not prejudice, or at least not in this movie.

This film has an almost Almodóvar quality to it. What I mean by this is that you begin to see how everyone's lives are magically interconnected as the move progresses. For this reason alone I am inclined to label this movie as unoriginal. It is rather silly to the point of being goofy at times, unrealistic, but reasonably entertaining nonetheless.

Takes awhile to get going, and I had to watch it a 3 times to stay awake through the first half, but it gets really good during the second half if you stick it out. Overall glad I bought it.

We'd rented this movie before & couldn't wait to purchase it to ad to our 'collection' of wonderful titles that are coming out of Madrid, Spain these days. Please let there be more, equally as good & hopefully better! Although I'm not sure how that is done. This is a great movie for EVERYONE. The story is well written, comedic, with twists of 'agnst' that offset the fable/story line. The actors are even better drawing us in to their lives & touching our hearts. These talented Spaniards come along at the right time, creating a world that crosses cultures, languages & stereotypes, for all to partake in/of. Give us more!

Here's the deal--"KM.0" is a movie that is hard not to like. It's fun, frothy, sexy, amusing, charming and has loads of charismatic and attractive actors. As a comedic romp, you could do a lot worse. I , for one, was enchanted by this delightfully sunny film and would recommend it wholeheartedly. It's like a cocktail on a hot summer day, however--you'll devour it quickly, enjoy it, but ultimately you may wish you had something slightly more substantial.

The movie is trying so hard to make you feel good, it may turn some viewers off, though. The movie is purely driven by coincidence, is sometimes lacking in logic, and takes some preposterous turns. It's a Spanish film with a decidedly sitcom aesthetic. I was OK with that--it's a first rate piece of fluff. But make no mistake, we are dealing with a breezy fantasy world here--any thought of seriously studying human relationships is quickly dispensed with.

Watch this one with friends, have some drinks, let it wash over you. It can put you in a good mood if you let it. But if you're in the wrong frame of mind, it may make you pull your hair out. It recalls that old advertising catchphrase "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful." This film is exactly what it sets out to be--so don't be too harsh. KGHarris, 10/06.