Km. 0

Low-budget and light, KM 0 is - nonetheless - a refreshing blend of drama and romantic comedy. Combining a sprawling Altman-size cast, a touch of Almodovar camp, and a Frank Capra sweetness, the film follows the interaction and evolving connections between 14 strangers from various backgrounds who all share a coincidental meeting place at the center of Madrid, during a highly symbolic heat wave. The varied situations they find themselves in are fairly cut-and-dried at first, but each evolves in an unusual direction, and at least a few of the characters (the younger gay man, the middle aged woman) are quite fascinating and endearing. This attention to detail elevates this charming but messy film above the usual romantic comedy, and the Capra-esquire twist near the film's end was pleasantly unexpected. With the exception of the middle-aged woman, I found the male characters to be much more well developed. The fact that a couple of the women preserve connections to men who treat them badly seemed highly unnecessary - though perhaps realistic, it didn't really work as a critique of sexual politics, and this threw a sour note into an otherwise breezy and pleasant film.

But overall there's plenty of charm here, and I found KM 0 to be mostly a treat.

Watch closely at the beginning as the ensemble characters are introduced. There are a lot of characters and the interplay between them is superb. For being funny, the movie still has a lot of power to shock with dark humor. The gay content is very frank, very natural, and very funny.

This movie is an utter delight that is bound to leave you with tears of joy or at least a broad smile. Kilometer Zero is where one begins to measure the roads in Madrid Spain. Located on the central Puerto Del Sol Plaza, it provides an obvious rendezvous point for anyone making a connection -- or in this case, mis-connections, where people supposed to meet, wind up meeting people they were not supposed to meet, but perhaps they needed to meet them anyway! Farcical perhaps, but in this case most of the characters seem trapped in a rather unhappy places in their lives, victims of their own disillusionment, or forced choices from the past. These range from strained marriages, to work as a handsome gigolo with a heart, to a hooker with a lack of self confidence, to a young gay man abandoned by his mother, a flamenco dancer, hot as a fire cracker, who lost his parents and seeks a partner on the internet, a would be bridegroom and a won't be bridegroom, with a bride to be that yearns for a boy from her youth, and her sister who yearns more passionately for her boyfriend, an actress without a part, and a director trying to cast a musical as he works out the drama of his own life. Liaisons, gay and straight, take on an almost, well an angelic quality. In the end, our friends find themselves in a much happier place because of their open hearts and these misconnected encounters that change them forever. A strange title, but this movie thoroughly enraptured me. Do not miss it.

This is a completely entertaining, hilariously funny, film. The story revolves around a series of coincidences and mistaken identities among an attractive group of Madrilenos of varied ages and sexual inclinations on a scorching summer day. While the plot, as such, is completely ridiculous and fairly predictible, the performances are uniformly terrific, and there are some very amusing twists and turns on the way to the foregone conclusion. Well worth seeing, much more genuinely amusing than most Hollywood attempts at romantic comedy.

Picture a romantic sex comedy as it might have been codirected by Frank Capra and Pedro Almodóvar, and you'll have a vague idea of the kind of quirky confection Serrano and Iborra have cooked up.

Iborra introduced the screening I saw in April 2001 at the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. He said he got the idea for "Km. 0" while standing in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, watching different combinations of people meet up at the plaza's famous zero-kilometer mark. This engaging, surprising, very funny and sentimental ensemble piece follows more than a dozen such characters of varying ages, professions and sexual orientations as their stories cross and separate over the course of one day.

My only gripe: the plot twist at the end seems unecessarily corny, though admittedly it's not at odds with what we saw earlier in the film. On the whole, "Km. 0" is worth seeing.