Km.0
Directed by: Juan Luis Iborra & Yolanda García Serrano.
Produced by: Gianni Ricci.
Written by: Iborra & Serrano.
Director of Photography: Ángel Luis Fernaández.
Edited by: José Salcedo.
Music by: Joan Bibiloni.
Released by: TLA Releasing.
Country of Origin: Spain. 105 min. Not Rated.
With: Carlos Fuentes, Elisa Matilla, Tristán Ulloa & Victor Ullate Jr..

Fourteen people, many of them whimsically impulsive, intersect at Km.O (Kilometer Zero), in the heart of Madrid on a scorching summer afternoon. In the screw ball comedy tradition, couples--gay and straight--embark on new relationships via mistaken identities and chance encounters in an urbane world where talking about sex is like talking about soccer. Tatiana (Matilla), a low-rent hooker with a heart of zircon, takes hold of Pedro (Fuentes), an aspiring film director from the sticks, thinking that he is her new client, Sergio, a timid virgin about to be wed. He, in turn, is taken under the wing of a man there to have a rendezvous arranged on-line. Instead, his intended, flamenco dancer Bruno (Ullate), mistakes someone else for his blind date. The playful tone established in the very ‘60s opening credit sequence, a la Pillow Talk, is maintained throughout. The relationship that best defines the film’s devil-may-care attitude is between stubborn 21-year-old Pedro and the weary 30-year-old Tatiana. He doesn’t want to reform her as much as direct her. Even when she has had a make over, not unlike Pretty Woman’s Julia Roberts, she proudly states, “I may look like a lady, but inside I’m still a whore.” (After all, it’s what’s inside that counts.) Even when the white subtitles are difficult to read, due to the bright cinematography, the intertwining story lines are easy to follow. Light as flan, Km.O is a hopeful kindred spirit to other insouciant Spanish comedies, such as Pedro Almodóvar’s Women on a Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and What Have I Done to Deserve This? Kent Turner
July 11, 2003