KISSING A FOOL (Universal) Starring: David Schwimmer, Jason Lee, Mili Avital, Bonnie Hunt. Screenplay: James Frey and Doug Ellin. Producers: Tag Mendillo, Andrew Form and Rick Lashbrook. Director: Doug Ellin. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, adult themes) Running Time: 94 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Some scattered thoughts on KISSING A FOOL, a film too aggressively mediocre to permit much more:
...Memo to David Schwimmer and Jason Lee: it's nice to see that you wanted to stretch a bit and try change-of-pace roles. Now quit it. In KISSING A FOOL, Schwimmer plays a womanizing sportscaster named Max Abbitt who thinks he has finally found The One in editor Samantha Andrews (Mili Avital); Lee plays Max's best friend Jay Murphy, a sensitive writer who has spent a year moping over the end of a relationship while turning it into his first novel. The premise finds sensitive Jay struggling with insecure Max's request that he test Samantha's fidelity by trying to seduce her, leading to all sorts of wild hijinks.
That is assuming you are willing to suspend your disbelief from the rafters long enough to buy the puppy-dog Schwimmer as an irresistable sex machine, or Lee (the abrasive Banky in CHASING AMY) as Mr. Nice Guy. Schwimmer's rendition of machismo consists of using a certain four-letter explitive around forty times, while Lee seems to be comfortable only when he's yelling at somebody (though he can be very funny when he is yelling at somebody). Both try so hard to create their own respective anti-image that they don't create actual characters.
...Memo to the American movie-going public: make Bonnie Hunt a star, or else. Hunt, who plays Jay's publisher and narrates the film in flashback, is simply one of the funniest women in any medium, bringing life to otherwise lifeless films like ONLY YOU or JUMANJI. In KISSING A FOOL, I kept waiting for the action to switch back to Hunt telling the tale to a couple of annoying party guests, where her unmatched reaction shots could provide all the zing the script lacked. Sadly, no one seems willing to give Hunt a chance to carry a film, which means she's generally relegated to mop-up duty in supporting roles. Until we all rise up and demand a better showcase for this wonderful performer, we'll all have to sit through films like KISSING A FOOL in order to see her.
...Memo to screenwriters of mainstream romantic comedies: enough with the coy pretext that everyone in the audience doesn't know exactly how the story is going to end. The flashback framing structure of KISSING A FOOL teases us by not showing us the groom to whom Samantha is getting married, but I mean _really_. The set-up is so transparently headed in one direction that it's insulting to suggest that anyone would guess incorrectly, not to mention the small fact that Hunt's character makes it explicitly clear with one comment. All this playing around with "who's gonna get the girl," with the accompanying wacky plot machinations, becomes just a way to pass the time.
News flash: romance is about _chemistry_. How about giving us a reason to _care_ who ends up with whom? How about giving us the faintest clue who Samantha (the appealing Israeli actress Avital) really is? How about a couple more scenes between her and, oh, I don't know, anybody? If you judged strictly on the basis of shared scenes, you might think KISSING A FOOL was a romance between Schwimmer and Lee (shades of CHASING AMY, anyone?).
...Memo to self: take a deep breath and wash KISSING A FOOL right out of your head. Oh, and buy a new memo pad.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 fools in love: 4.
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