Butterfly Kiss

Seeing that so many people have gone out of their way to denigrate Butterfly Kiss, I feel constrained to weigh in on its virtues.

It is not a Hollywood entertainment, nor is it a Jane Austen prestige picture, or a politely naughty comedy for the art house crowd. It's a movie for people who are willing to risk a certain amount of emotional discomfort to gain the benefits of experiencing the world through unaccustomed perspectives. It's for those who want to learn about human beings on the margins of society, the forgotten, the pathological, the lost.

It's the sort of film that can't be appreciated without a high tolerance for unsympathetic protagonists, unreliable narrators, unintelligible motivations, and morally ambiguous conclusions.

In short, Butterfly Kiss demands an intellectual curiosity and nimbleness of mind that's not always characteristic of American audiences.

This is not to argue that it's necessarily a good film, or successful at achieving its ambitions. More than once, while watching it, I found myself wondering how much relation to real people this story might actually have. Unlike Monster, with which it has obvious parallels, Butterfly Kiss doesn't appear to be based on factual events.

The film's ability to cause me to "suspend disbelief" suffered from a touch too much Grand Guignol excess and, perhaps more damningly, writerly artifice. (For no clear reason, the protagonists are named "You"(Eunice) & "Me" (Miriam).)

But the characters kept on surprising me, which indicates, if nothing else, that there's something vital and alive about this story. By the end, I was moved to pity for these two deeply damaged women, and, perhaps more importantly, I was moved to compassion.

For that, I'd sit through an unpleasant movie any day of the week.

The title is misleading for a film that really doesn't have anything pleasant about it. Amanda Plummer's character made my skin crawl and still haunts me when watching her other work. I suppose this gives strength to her performance and shows she is a great character actor. Saskia Reeves takes on a role as a wimpish lesbian besotted with Amanda Plummer's character. Saskia usually plays stronger more interesting roles but I suppose it creates contrast. Be prepared for a road movie with a difference. Lots of gore and little compassion.

In England, the psychopath Eunice (Amanda Plummer) takes rides to gas stations seeking out a song and a woman called Judith that would be in love with her in the cashier of convenience stores. When she takes a ride, she usually kills the driver and leaves the car on the next gas station. When Eunice stumbles upon the naive lesbian Miriam (Saskia Reeves), she brings Eunice home to stay with her. But Eunice wants to find Judith and Miriam decides to go with her. Soon she realizes that Eunice is insane and bipolar but she follows her in her crime spree.

"Butterfly Kiss" is a disturbing but also boring movie directed by Michael Winterbottom. The weird Amanda Plummer is in the top of her career quite immediately after "Pulp Fiction" but the plot is too sick and repetitive. Maybe in 1995 this film could be more attractive, but today it is annoying. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Beijo da Borboleta" ("The Butterfly Kiss")

One of the most memorable movies I've ever had the fortunate experience of picking up at a video rental store. It exposed me to one of the best actresses of the 20th., and now 21st. Century: Amanda Plummer. My praise of this film does not finish with Ms.Plummer's believable portrayal of this intense, psychotic young woman. Being an ex-patriot (as they say), I could even smell the petrol (gasoline) fumes. I felt as though I were 'Up North'. It's not a pretty picture! It's certainly not one to be missed by any serious film (noir) lover. You might also check out 'Heavenly Creatures' 1994.

Amanda Plummer continues her tradition of oddball and perfectly drawn characters in Butterfly Kiss. In fact, her extended cameo in Pulp Fiction comes across as somewhat well balanced in contrast to her portrayal of this dented and damaged road weary dominatrix in search of a soulmate on one of Britain's anonymous northern roads.

Thelma and Louise? Well, yes, I suppose, but Butterfly Kiss has more in common with John Huston's little known masterpiece Wise Blood than with Ridley Scott's dust-borne epic of the great American Southwest. There are two women in both movies--but Little Women is not Thelma and Louise cubed.

There are some beautiful loose ends in this one. Why is Plummer's character the way she is? Where's she been? How did this come about? Adding to that is the fact that the accents are thick as steel padlocks and what you should have is a confusing mess. Instead, Plummer pulls this off with such aplomb that you don't care about any of that. What's she going to do next? That's the real question in Butterfly Kiss, and you'll hang on just to find out.

I loved this. Rent it for a couple of days because you'll want to see it a couple of times before you're done with it.