10,000 KM
Long ago, television was seen as an evil that could destroy civilization by disrupting the organic human discourse by which “Bonanza” and “The Beverly Hillbillies” got into our living rooms. Silent watching of TV sets in the corners of their eyes for household members became a common practice whenever they were home. The nuclear family has never really fully recovered, especially in this era of binge watching on personal devices.
Certainly, now TV has plenty of competition for our ever-shrinking attention spans. There are many digital gadgets to thwart us from talking to one another or even doing things physically. However, unlike these gizmos, tablets, cell phones and laptops permit people to text each other with instant messages, make video calls on Skype and other social sites.
However as shown in ‘10,000 KM’ where distant lovers fight to fill the wide gap between Southern California and Spain over one year separation those screens will most likely be barriers rather than accessible links to your lover’s soul that is miles away from you. When it comes down to bonding over the small details of life such as cuddling and arguing or sharing jokes virtual can’t beat real.
Of course, this isn’t exactly rocket science but first-time director Carlos Marques-Marcet comes close to pulling off what it feels like trying to keep in touch through applications like Skype by paring his narrative down only to what’s important: a man, a woman who love each other and whose relationship is sorely tested.” It is a kind of Cassavetes like filmmaking unlike say “Men Women & Children,” Jason Reitman’s grand-scheming take on digital age perils. Instead “10,000 KM” feels real and crude with the occasional threat of torpor.
This opening scene demonstrates how good Marques Marcet can be at grabbing attention. The more than twenty minute shot begins with early morning sex between two millennials who have been together for seven years and still find each other attractive. As they lie in bed, they talk about their attempts to get pregnant.
Next comes the movement of domesticity through a lazy Sunday morning where the couple brushes teeth, makes coffee in their small Barcelona apartment and reveals themselves. He is Sergi (David Verdaguer) who is jocular, expressive and tender; she is Alex, played by Natalia Tena, who is purposeful, ambitious and realistic and so opens her laptop as soon as she has finished breakfast.
Then an Email arrives that acts like a grenade thrown into the room. Alex’s emotional temperature drops somewhat onscreen when she discovers that she has been offered her dream assignment; a contract as a freelance photographer in Los Angeles. In the mean time Sergi realizes he will be putting off everything he ever hoped for including their baby whose name is already being hotly debated. At this point in time it materialized onscreen while they were still close before it faded away behind them just to reveal what was going to pull them apart from one another next moment distance/title of the movie
To begin with, once Alex lands in her sunny Silverlake haven filled with Ikea’s glaring white furniture and fabrics, it becomes evident that the whole film will be about just these two characters. A few players bantering over lunch, a runner on the screen grab from a snapshot of one of Alex’s new friends would only be seen on pictures and images on her laptop.
Such an intriguing pair they make though: Verdaguer looks like a hairier, leaner version of Oscar Isaac while Tena is best known for playing Osha in “Game of Thrones” and being Nicholas Hoult’s punk crush in “About a Boy.” I wonder if Marques-Marquet chose them because they both have matching statement eyebrows which are often acted as exclamation points.
For some time, Sergi and Alex try to rekindle their relationship but eventually give up. At one point he tells her to go out and see more people. However, when she begins rebuilding life for herself, he resorts to sulking and paranoia; stalking her on Facebook and throwing tantrums. Well he should be given his mood considering that Sergi who most of the times appears shadowed behind his computer screen in relation to the eastern time zone fears not passing his board exams so that he can become a full-time music teacher. Then he is shown surrounded by empty bottles and glasses crying his eyes out once Alex has been gone AWOL for too long.
Of course many couples face this crossroad where one person is making great strides while another feels left behind, forgotten rom coms have been made out of such situations before. What makes it interestingly different though is how this split is further complicated by their inability to really touch each other through technology properly. In addition, Marques Marquet ups the stakes by including two other well executed sex scenes within the film one about halfway through it, another near its conclusion-which prominently mark the state of affairs.
This method of storytelling does come with some inherent disadvantages but it never becomes a mere gimmick. It is true that watching Sergi chiding Alex’s cooking skills as she makes a mess out of frying onions or seeing her sort out socks when he can’t even be bothered is not exactly enthralling filmmaking. Nevertheless, there is nothing more heartbreaking than seeing this guy do whatever it takes to keep this woman in his life, holding a laptop and staring into its screen farsightedly as though they were continents apart.
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