Kiss of Life

"Kiss of Life" (2003) from BBC Films, written and directed by Emily Young, is a depiction of several days in the lives of a global relief worker (in far away yonder of remote Eastern Europe) and his family of wife, daughter, son and father-in-law back in London, England. It's the less glamorous side of the emotional reality of such a family, with a husband & father who has the ambition to 'save the world' of others while the world immediate to him seems to be crumbling, desperately beckoning him to return home where he's really needed.

Yes, the subject matter is tough - quite courageous of Young to tackle in her debut feature. With the help of two talented leads: Peter Mullan (always fascinating to watch) as John and Ingeborga Dapkunaite (memorable from "Burnt By the Sun" 1994 Russian film) as Helen - the woe-begotten couple (love amiss and love a-longing), along with Millie Findlay as Kate the budding teenage daughter, James E. Martin as Telly the taciturn young son, plus veteran British actor David Warner as Pap in his solitude (grandpa to the children), we have an 86-min. of tense, anxious emotions at play. The son reminds me of director Angela Pope's 'Hollow Reed' (1995, Martin Donovan, Joely Richardson with Sam Bould), a film also with a young son quite alone and coping with crisis. The daughter (the only one with makeup on most of the time) presents her teen angst in parent conflict situations, yet we see her caringness and intimate conversational moments with Mum.

Emily Young's "Kiss of Life" is an emotional ride (wringer). The Croatian Unit location shot scenes are well edited by David Charap and cinematography by Wojciech Szepel with music by Murray Gold gave the various moods a measured balance to the plot progression. There is poetry to the reminiscent flashbacks and pause moments placed to each character's thought sequences.

I was lucky to be able to catch this rare gem of a movie on Cable Sundance Channel. In spite of the seeming anxiety and probable 'tragic' turn of events, the glint of hope is there - that John's perseverance against all odds could pay off, perhaps at the loss of one and regaining connection to the others. Life is short and cherish it with the ones dear to us, we are prompted.

Watching this movie was like watching the funeral ceremony of a total stranger: depressing, boring and ultimately pointless.

This movie could have used a stronger story, though what that story should have been I don't know as I'm not exactly sure what this movie was trying to tell us.

The characters are too underdeveloped and the movie too fragmented to really start feeling for these people, which makes the whole thing boring, depressing and confusing rather than moving.

The added "ghostly" twist doesn't help either. In this respect; why the mother had to suffer twice by making her witness her children's sorrow is beyond me as well.

This film aspires to be something far deeper than it actually achieves and is severely let down by bad to average acting and some very lame dialogue. Whilst the theme is not unique it is edited in such a fashion as to make it incomprehensible.

I'm sure there will be plenty who will disagree and say that this is a stunning debut film purely because it is British, but that is because we have so little to compare.

There are some redeeming aspects of this film, the score being one of them. I am sure that Emily Young can mature into a competent filmmaker if she learns from the failings of 'Kiss of Life'. Ultimately this would be a good student film but certainly isn't worth shelling out for at your local cinema.

At least the Film Council is finally doing what it was created for and is funding new directors in low budget features...even if the result is part of the directors learning curve. Maybe things can only get better?

Part romance, part road movie and part ghost story, Kiss of Life is a strong but inconsistent debut feature from British director Emily Young. It's the story of a woman who – after being killed in a car accident – finds herself stuck in limbo whilst her husband, unaware of her death, races from war-torn Eastern Europe to be with her. In telling this tale, Young attempts to weave two very different stories together, and is not always successful. It becomes hard to care about one character or the other as you continually flit between stories. On one hand you have the family living in England. Helen floats in limbo whilst the rest of her family deals with the grief of her death. As Helen is reduced to being a spirit in her own home, she recalls previous times with husband John. Here, Young is attempting to wring emotional mileage out of Helen's situation, but it never completely works. This partly because it takes too long for her to work out her situation (You were hit by a car, your kids or father can't see you and are crying all the time. There's a good chance you may be a ghost) and partly because it all feels slightly too manipulative. However, as Helen, Dapkunaite does a fine job and is given able support by David Warner as her father.

John's story proves much more productive. Peter Mullan gives a wonderful performance as the father who will do anything to get back home. Hitching lifts with refugees or trying to find his way across deserted towns, his journey becomes not only a personal odyssey, but a document of the effect of war. It's in these sections where the dramatic irony of his wives death works so well. His desire to see her is countered by our knowledge of her death. Thus, his story is also tinged with an underlying sadness which culminates in an almost unbearably tragic scene in a deserted tower block as he continues his journey.

Kiss of Life contains many wonderful moments, but never quite coheres as a whole. Perhaps more suited to the small screen, it remains a confident debut from a director who will be worth keeping an eye on in the future.

With this film Emily Young uses a simple plot to explore the deeper emotions of the human condition, including desolation, yearning, loss, love and grief. Ultimately the film questions the viewers' beliefs and philosophies of life, death and the afterlife. A mother of two is killed in a hit and run accident while her husband, unaware of the accident, but in the process of realizing his deep love for his wife and family, desperately tries to return from his aid mission in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, the dead mother's father, himself still in grieving for his dead wife is poor comfort for the disorientated children. To explore the mother's feelings she appears, following her death, as a spirit/ghost and interacts with the living. Some viewers may be confused by this and get bogged down trying to understand the order of events but really the death of the mother is serving to prime the viewer to empathize fully with the family characters in the scenes to follow. The order of events and indeed whether the events have actually occurred or not are largely irrelevant but the feelings evoked by the scenes are crucial. Some of the scenes and events/images are allegories for other events, states of mind, general emotions etc. Also the events have different meaning for each of the characters in the film. For example, the photo, shown regularly in the film has a very important meaning to the mother but a different but just as important meaning to the young son. The script is left quite bare and the director relies heavily on the skills of all the actors' expressions and abilities to convey the meanings of each scene. There are a number of tremendously emotional scenes in this film but the imagery in the wood and the final scenes with the mother in the rain are particularly important. I personally think this is an excellent film because it does demand full involvement and empathy from the viewer.