O Beijo da Borboleta

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.

This is a strange British film which revolves around a relationship between two characters that alternates between super sweet and super disturbing (one of them has a penchant for asking people at petrol stations if they've heard a specific love song then kills them afterwards). Love and redemption, like a modern Shakespearean tragedy, courses through the film's veins. The repetitive nature of the narrative coalesces into a hypnotic rhythm, riding the pace out sleekly. Though scripted, the film feels spontaneous, exciting and shows subtle natural variation on a theme. The characters attempt to obtain purification, thinking that murder is the only way they can downplay their other more humanly flaws. Powerful, strong film that is refreshingly modest and practical.

Amanda Plummer ravages through this film like a wounded hyena starving for what may be it's last meal come flood or high water. She may be Hollywoods best actress, but does she give a crap. I thinks not. Hollywood gives Oscars for cute models who show a talent for walking talking and chewing gum all at he same time. And if she can make herself ugly for a role, Hollywood seems astounded at her courage. Plummer can not only chew these little girls into so many wads of Jamaican licorice stick, but in this role as Eunice, she makes Robert DeNiro look like a neutered cub scout. This is as powerful a performance as you'll see. And on top of that her English accent is superb. There aren't any other actresses in Hollywood that could play this role. Maybe Renee Zellweger could come close. But I doubt she'd have the guts to do it. This is a very disturbing film. But a performance like this would make even the great Kim Stanley cringe.

If you generally don't like murder films you'll hate this movie, never mind the fact that it's actually very good. Very little heed (if any) is paid to the numerous victims, their bodies falling to the side of the storyline as the obsessed female lovers move on, taking the plot with them. Butterfly Kiss introduces two startlingly distinctive, unique women, opposites drawn together by loneliness and a need for balance. Eunice is a dispairing, tortured soul who searches the bland, grey motorways of England for the ever-absent Judith (does this abstract individual really exist or is she another figment of Eunice's amazingly complex and unstable psyche?). People who turn out not to be Judith tend to end up the victim of Eu's homocidal wrath (note though that Judiths importance to Eu was going to end up in mortal sacrifice also). Eunice has no inhibitions, no scruples; her behaviour is repulsive, obnoxious, sexually promiscuous, extravagantly moody. She acts purely on impulse and instinct, rarely using her devastated mind, for Eunice actually wants to be caught, and wants to be punished. In fact, she consistantly pushes her luck in aggravating people, beleiving God (and I guess the rest of the world) has forgotten her. Consequently she is forced to punish herself, wrapping her scrawny body in chains that hurt and bruise her. It is quite possible that a lot of her other actions throughout the film, which are illogical and cruel up front, are more attempts by Eu at self-punishment though that is left for the audience to mull over. Miriam, by contrast, is water to Eu's fire, a metaphor even she explains in her black and white interveiws dotted throughout the film, as she tells their story to a camera. Miriam at first looks to be dim, naive, childish and ineloquent in her speech. Reading between the lines this version of Mi fails to convince, instead giving the image of perceptive, open-minded in the extreme, generous and angelicly kind. Whether this was supposed to be Mi or was Saskia Reeves' true intelligence mistakenly worming its way to the surface is unknown, and it doesnt really matter -the character was nontheless, adorable. As lonely and love-starved as Eunice, their similarities end there. Mi is totally honest and forthcoming; her love for Eunice is complete and unconditional. Along with being painfully direct, Eunice is also implicitly dishonest. When Miriam discovers Eu's homocidal nature she is already in love. She disposes of the body without encouragment from Eu and sets out to support Eu and make her a better person. Rather she becomes a murderer herself, though through more subtle indications she retains all the original beauty and kindness of her placid personality. People who may dislike this movie are being subjectively incorrect in saying that it isn't good. Truly it is not a pleasant film to watch but it is still a worthwhile peice of artistry riddled with talent.

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")