A Brother's Kiss

This is an intelligent and extremely well acted character study of two working class brothers growing up in NYC. Their lives are tragically changed one night when they are terrorized and sexually assaulted by an off duty police officer. The young boys grow into men who eventually fall into their families dysfunction of drug abuse (the older brother) and emotional distance (the younger brother - who raped by the police officer grows up to himself become a cop). The cast includes well known actors such as Cathy Moriarty, Rose Perez and John Leguziamo in supporting roles.

"A Brother's Kiss" tells of two brothers who grow up in the mean streets of NYC and take opposite paths through life still bound by brotherly love through thick and thin. A strong performance by Chinlund (one of those where-have-I-seen-that-guy-before actors) is the glue which holds this overwrought freak show of cliche stereotypical characters together. The film serves up 20 minutes of the bro's as kids and then skips ahead to adult life where we see one as a cop and the other as a good intentioned loser with a habit. "...Kiss" sports a good cast and crew but doesn't live up to its potential because of a story we've all seen before and poor direction leading to overwrought drama. Every scene plays out like an excuse for exaggerated characters and over acting making this film a good example of that most common of all faults of the novice artist - not knowing when to quit. "Real" would have been better and less would have been more. (C-)

This is a powerful movie about the love between two bothers.One experiments with drugs and is swept away from his family and eventually reality. Nick Chinlund as "Lex" gives a powerful and disturbing performance as the brother destroyed by drugs. An Academy Award nomination was deserved!!!

I've read some of the reviews and I agree with some and disagree strongly with others. I've seen this movie close to 6 times now, it's always on around 3-4 AM on the IFC channel, and I always end up watching it. Nick Chinlund gives an amazingly intense, powerful, and emotional performance as "Lex", the eldest brother who undergoes a transformation from below average working class family man that's down on his luck to full blown drug addict and street fiend who will do whatever he has to in order to get his next fix. From robbing his own brother, to his friends he slowly descends on a downward spiral that is so realistic Im shocked this movie did not get him noticed on a larger scale. If anybody has any relatives or friends who are addicts, you will understand how accurately he portrays this character "Lex". The supporting cast is great, you cant go wrong with John Leguizamo, Michael Rappaport, Rosie Perez & Marissa Tomei. I definitely recommend checking this movie out, I think it will surprise you!

Extremely sad and powerful movie deserves much more than it got. Justin Pierce is equally good if not better than he was in KIDS. Be prepared to cry.