Second feature of Danish director Niels Arden Oplev, "Speed walking" (2014, original title "Kapgang") is an intense and realistic snapshot of the daily life in a little town in the Jutland (North Denmark) in the mid-seventies, the years of the liberalization of porn in the country.
It is a film that mainly focuses on three great milestones of human life: love, betrayal and death. Normally only the first two are related to the life of a teenager; when Fate also adds the death of a loved one, the framework can only become darker and devastating and a very strong personality is needed to not give up to the ordeals of life.
Martin (played masterfully by Villads Bøye, 15 y.o. When filming) is a 14 years old athlete who is excellent in speed walking (which gives the film its title): he's very talented and likely to become the Danish champion in his age group. He is also going to have his confirmation that involves to organize the lunch ceremony at the restaurant.
Martin has a confused sexuality: he is in fact strongly attracted to his schoolmate and sports partner Kim (played by Frederik Winther Rasmussen), with whom he usually does things that we can certainly define as "sexual", such as kisses, hugs, caresses and mutual touching of genitalia.
However, neither of the two boys defines himself and what they usually do as "gay": they say they do these things to train for when they have to do it with the girls; but they're probably both lying. Martin certainly does, because he does like these things: actually he always asks Kim to do that, even when the friend is not so willing to, even in the locker room after training!
But, strange to say, Martin and Kim both have a feeling for Kristina (Kraka Donslund Nielsen), a beautiful girl in their classroom and both try to approach her in a certain sexually way: will it just be the sexual confusion typical of adolescents?
However, one sad day, returning from his training session, Martin sees all the Danish flags in the streets at half-mast and all the people looking at him in a strange way; when arrived home, he sees his father's appliance shop closed and Lizzi, his mother's best friend, comes in tears to tell him that his mother is dead.
Dead? In what sense? Why? How? Wasn't it just a simple flu? No, it wasn't, Lizzi explains to him: it was a blood cancer that quickly killed her.
When entered the house, Martin sees his father, Hans, literally destroyed by sorrow: the man lies almost inert on the sofa crying in despair; Martin's older brother, Jens, is in an even worse mood: he has locked himself in his room wearing his mother's jacket and sunglasses and is screaming like a madman.
The only one who seems keep calm in that hard moment is Martin himself. Actually it is more disorientation than calmness, because the boy seems on the edge of exploding into tears. But with a father and a brother that appears to be completely useless, Martin is the man of the house who must do the honors to those who come there to offer their condolences for the grieving loss.
The following morning Martin has to take care of his father who has moved from the marital bedroom to the warehouse at the back of the shop where he's lying motionless in a makeshift bed: he even has to help him get dressed!
However, surprisingly, Martin join his mates speedwalking: perhaps it is his way of releasing his grief and tension, given that he has not yet shed a single tear since he was told the bad news. But what is even more astonishing for us viewers, is seeing Martin at Kim's house first talking about Kristina's breasts (after all they are 14 years old...) and then even playing their usual sexual games. After that, moreover, he meets Kristina and even try a sexual approach with her that she refuses.
So, could Martin be so insensitive and heartless as it appears? No he is that way not at all: he is just little more than a child who does not yet know how to deal with the tragedy that has struck him (maybe he does not even understand what that means) and when he does, it will be in a violent and uncontrolled manner.
In fact, the next day, when the funeral is held, everyone is around the grave where the white coffin has just been placed; the priest is pronouncing his prayer with emotion, when Martin's sorrow finally explodes violently: he tries to throw himself into the grave - barely held back by some people - screaming that his mother can't be dead, they have to open the coffin to get her out because she's alive. Senseless words mixed to a lot of tears: his reaction is so violent that his uncle had to force him home to clean him up because he is all dirty with soil, dust and tears.
Days go by, and things at home are not going well at all: he, the younger of the three males, has the unnatural task of keeping together a destroyed family with a father who knows nothing about how to look after his sons (and who goes to the local hairdresser to let off steam with sex) and the brother who is still the bizarre pathetic double of his late mother. Martin does this by cooking, doing housework and even going to burn all his mother's clothes and things in the incinerator, because his father didn't have the courage to do that. However, Martin keeps for himself one of his mother's dresses which he will put at night on his pillow to fall asleep.
In so much mourning, there is also room for a beautiful sentimental moment: Martin and Kim are returning home at late sunset and in the dim lights of the evening Martin asks his friend: «Have you ever been in love with more than one at the same time?» obviously meaning that he likes both Kim and Kristin. But his friend, perhaps pretending not to understand, replies that you cannot love more than one person at a time: it may be a coincidence, but shortly after this disappointment, Martin become sort of engaged with Kristina, altough he and Kim continue to do their sexual plays which on a rainy day take the explicit form of mutually masturbating naked in Kim's bed.
The date of Martin's confirmation is approaching: The boy now has to chose who will sit next to him instead of his late mother and he goes for Kristina and his friend Kim. Initially he had placed his maternal grandmother, but then removed her after she had had bad words with Martin's father.
At the restaurant, Hans has some beautiful words for his son: after praising him for his remarkable sporting skills, he recognizes in front of everyone that Martin was the one who had the most courage in facing their serious loss, the courage Hans himself lacks; he tells that when he looks at Martin he sees his mother as for his courage in facing the life, his determination to get the best out of life even in the darkest hour; and he thanks Martin for being him.
Unfortunately, that day is bound to worsening: Martin finds Kim and Kristin having sex on the cot in his father's warehouse. The boy is upset: partly because he drank some liquor but above all at the sight of his girlfriend's betrayal with his best friend (and vice versa) Martin runs out, on the verge of fainting and pukes profusely on the lawn of the house.
A neighbor sees and helps him but he doesn't want to go back to his house; the woman takes him to her house and gives him a shower while he doesn't speak (probably still shocked by what he saw) and stands still and dazed while he is washed, as if he were a small child. Then the woman puts him to bed, where he falls asleep almost immediately, and she calls his father to reassure him.
The scene changes and we see Martin winning his speedwalking competition while being loudly cheered and praised by all the people who love him, including Kim and Kristin who now date together. Still tired from the race, Martin is on his legs, panting: he turns back to look at all of them smiling largely; then he stands upright and looks into the distance, towards the future that awaits him. With the confidence and the courage he has always had in sport, as in life
All in all a film really worth seeing, both in terms of the strong themes covered and in terms of the way in which the characters are brightly outlined, where Martin, the young protagonist, stands far above the others: he is not only the glue of the family torn by the tragedy, but he also managed to forgive his girlfriend and his best friend who betrayed him in such a vile and petty way, just out of carnality. And maybe - but we will never know this - he could have also discovered that he might like the boys more than the girls or - who knows? - everyone will gives him love and warmth, be it a boy or a girl.
As for the acting, Villads Bøye deserves a particular mention for the very high quality of his interpretation of a difficult character like Martin. Based on the specific scenes of the film, he manages to expertly alternate joy with sadness, even desperation. And when it comes to sentimental or vaguely erotic moments, he manages to show both the typical curiosity and cheekiness of teenagers and the appropriate hint of shame for what is happened or is going to happen.
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