Just a Kiss

It doesn't take much to set the dominoes of human relationships to tumbling. Sometimes all it takes is a kiss. In "Just a Kiss", one man, Dag, has a one-nighter with his best friends girl. This sets in motion a series of encounters that ultimately cause much pain and suffering and death. At least that's what we're led to believe. But the film uses gimmicks and "cleverness" to twist things around enough to provide a pat Hollywood ending. While watching the movie, I wasn't liking it much, but afterwards I came to like it a bit. I'm still not a fan of roto-scope, or roto-animation, or whatever it's called, ("Waking Life" may have put me off it forever), and even though it was used sparingly in this movie, I found it to be annoying. In the end, I'll probably recommend this movie to some people, but definitely not others

"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-)

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).

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.

There are in fact some good takes in this film. Each is like an episode that relates forward or back to another, with uneven balance. The clever rotomation is probably unnecessary, but you never know because the central theme of infidelity masquerading as comedy never gets off the ground.

It could be just that I don't appreciate gimmicks or television-inspired quick jumps from one aspect or view of an object to another. Or that I see Generation X or Millennium Generation attitudes as disjointed and lacking any sense of classic value. Anyone who might be strongly centered on the idea of "character" (in the old sense of that word) should probably avoid this film as a waste of time. Go and rent a computer game or watch Reality TV instead.