Review of 10,000 Km (2014) by Jl G — 11 Jul 2015

10.000 KM - Movie.

A couple struggles to keep their relationship alive through the 10.000 Km divide from Barcelona to Los Angeles, Alex (Natalia Tena) moves to L.A. to take a year long internship and follow her dream of making a living from what she loves (Photography... Boy does that last part sounds familiar) while her 7 year live-in boyfriend Sergi (David Verdaguer) stays behind working on securing a job in a struggling Spanish job market and keeping up their cozy apartment.

The film is a great take on society's misguided notion that technology can fill in the huge gaps on long distance relationships and replace the immediacy /intimacy of someone's actual presence when we need it, most of the times the participants don't realize what is happening until they lose touch with the other person and find out that they actually grew apart rather than closer by the same technology that provides a false sense of connection.

Yes you may be able to witness something but you are still missing the experience, (sounds, aromas, first person point of view, being able to throw your arms around a loved one etc).

Director (Marques-Marcet) and Cinematographer (Weaver-Madsen) do a superb job orchestrating an opening act, that flawlessly walks us through the first 20 minutes of the film with what appears to be a fixed camera that pivots, pans, zooms in and out of different areas of the cozy Barcelona apartment while the basis and structure of the film is established, in addition to a couple of amazing performances by Natalia Tena & David Verdaguer, mostly with sutile expressions and changes on body language where often times without words they would fill the screen with emotions and internal monologues that are clear but are still left to the viewer imagination, amazing performances which continue throughout the film. You can almost sense where this work would easily translate as a Play.

Marques-Marcet also made clever use of Skype and/or Facetime by using not your typical screen positions to keep the interactions fresh in addition to having fun with the typical connection issues we all experience when trying to establish a long distance conversation.

Overall a simple but Great film where we can witness the gradual degradation of a seemingly near perfect relationship by parachuting into random but key points of the year long span captured on this film.

If you are in Mexico you can catch this on Netflix, Amazon Streaming in the US and Gym Cinema in San Diego, Ca this week and limited release everywhere else.