Loneliest Planet, The

Synopsis: A newly married young couple Alex (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) hire a local guide, Dato (Bidzina Gujabidze) for a hiking tour through the mountains of Georgia. One day an unsettling incident occurs that throws the couple’s relationship into doubt.

If you are looking for a film that is strong on narrative, high-flown dramatics or action-adventure, The Loneliest Planet will not be for you. It is a largely observational film that is literally and metaphorically a journey of discovery. The literal level is the trek across the Caucasian mountains, director Julia Loktev making good use of the rugged, treeless landscape in all its variety to frame her subjects, often opening on a scene of a stretch of river or a mountainside in a wide long shot and holding it there before allowing the 3 walkers to enter as tiny figures, now from the left hand, now the right.

For the first hour or so most people will be wondering where all three and the film are heading but the director gives us no indication. Alex teaches Spanish to Nica by having her conjugate verbs, Dato (a real Georgian mountaineer and a non-professional actor) makes intermittent conversation in broken English. It is not clear what span of time is covered although their small backpacks seem to deny anything too extensive.  About halfway through the film a small incident occurs that shifts the tone dramatically from focussing on the relatively thoughtless happiness of the young couple in the first throes of love to silent reflection on themselves and their relationship.

Owing much to Roberto Rossellini's 1953 film about a married couple in a foreign land, Voyage In Italy, The Loneliest Planet is a portrait of the fragility and limits of relationships, the title very much referring to the individual ego.  With effectively only the three cast members and her camera, Loktev does a fine job of transposing the Tom Bissell short story on which the film is based to the screen. But be warned, there is no short cut to your destination so make sure that you are ready for the march.

 

 

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