Just a Kiss

I took this movie because my wife wanted a romantic comedy. It is slightly comedy as well as romantic, but IT IS NOT a romantic comedy. What it is is one of those situational movies which exploit the butterfly effect in relationships and in the end everybody ends up knowing everybody and having a connection to them and facing consequences for the things they did in the first start of the movie.

The graphical effects are nice sometimes, but completely unnecessary. After I watched about 80% of the film I have already decided that it is better than a romantic comedy, as I wasn't bored out of my socks, but worse than any other type of movie. I've already labeled it average and I was waiting for the end. The end, though, transformed into a short "what if" mini-movie that canceled all the bad effects of the first part of the film. I didn't like that, really.

So, in conclusion, while it was a rather original take on an old story, it failed to deliver entertainment or at least the discovery of one's true hidden feelings as some of these romantic experiments end up doing. You just watch the movie, completely disconnected and vaguely aware of the emotions of the characters, then it ends.

This movie was a moviestar-filled indie film about relationships and what might have happened had they chosen to take things differently with the people nearest to them. This plot is very overused so naturally to change the movie and make it unique, they add digital effects over the video to make it more artsy.

I liked the effects and the different characters were always getting themselves into crazy situations involving neverending change, but the way this was directed was so unbelievable and chaotic that the audience, in my opinion, doesn't have time to understand how to react to the changes that are made. This movie is more depressing than happy or even "real."

This obviously is supposed to be a black comedy based around the emotion of love and its many forms and prices of being in love. I gave it a 5/10 stars because although it had nice stylistic touches to keep you watching, there was very little payoff to watching through to the credits.

Commercial director Dag (Ron Eldard) is a former womanizer. He's dating Halley (Kyra Sedgwick) and their best friend is Peter (Patrick Breen). Peter is dating flighty lead dancing Rebecca (Marley Shelton) who lives under her domineering director mother. One day, Rebecca reveals that she and Dag had a fling while she was touring in Europe. Dag, Halley, and Peter all break up as they find other relationships. Dag flirts with unstable waitress Paula (Marisa Tomei) who is in love Peter's commercial as a peanut butter mascot eagle. Halley has a fling with Andre (Taye Diggs) while staying at Rebecca's apartment. Peter meets Colleen (Sarita Choudhury) and then their plane crashes.

It's always fascinating to see these established actors in their earlier less-known work. Suddenly, Peter Dinklage shows up in a weird one-off role. Tomei is playing a psycho. There is a lot of wackiness but it doesn't strike my fancy. It's harder to laugh when the lead annoys me and Dag annoys me. I'm not a fan Eldard although he's usually pretty good as the annoying sidekick or the pathetic villain. It's not good when he's the lead. I also find the animated flashes really bad and unnecessary. I'm only interested in Halley and Peter but even there, the interest fades rather quickly. Peter pulling down his pants is a great move but his character turns bland. I love Sedgwick but when she lets in Andre, I just don't think that any New Yorker would do that without at least calling Rebecca. In the end, none of these characters intrigue me and other than the pants drop, none of it struck me as being funny.

Great movie! It starts out with two people about to kiss in a hotel room, with both of them admitting that this is going to be a big mistake. Buit they go ahead and do it anyway. After that, the rest of the movie deals with the implications of that kiss. But the way it is all presented is quite fun. There are the somewhat annoying uses of cartooning effects over the real actors. But the most enjoyable part was the way they played with the timeline. At any given time, you aren't really sure if you're in the present or the past. The first few times take you by surprise.

Not your typical love story, for sure. I thought the actors were fine, everyone lies, noone is perfect, which is the way life is. Just more so. As Sid Ceasar said, "Comedy has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the end." And that's what they did with this movie.

A good 7.5 (8 on IMDB).

"Just a Kiss" sucks like a Hoover. I only made it about halfway before ejecting. I showed the DVD cover to my SO and she just stuck up her nose at it. Even my cat tried to cover it up. The film has a good cast (why I rented it) but no story, goes no place, and really needs to get over itself. It's salted with cute little effects...not cute cute, just dumb cute. One star from Ebert and 86% rotten according to RottenTomatoes.com, I shoulda known better. (C-)