KISSED
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
(Goldwyn) Starring: Molly Parker, Peter Outerbridge, Jay Brazeau. Screenplay: Lynne Stopkewich and Angus Fraser, based on the short story by Barbara Gowdy. Producers: Dean English and Lynne Stopkewich. Director: Lynne Stopkewich. MPAA Rating: Unrated (sexual situations, nudity, profanity, adult themes) Running Time: 78 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
What is it about Canada which gets film-makers thinking about sex, death and car washes? Canada's David Cronenberg has already delivered one exploration of the bond between carnality and mortality in 1997, the much-talked-about CRASH, and now countrywoman Lynne Stopkewich has presented us with KISSED. Molly Parker stars in KISSED as Sandra Larson, a young woman who knows from an early age that she has a profound need to connect with the moment when life turns to death. She acts on that obsession by becoming an apprentice at a funeral home, where she has sex with the dead bodies in a ritual which brings her closer to the power of the hereafter. The problems begin when a medical student named Matt (Peter Outerbridge) falls hard for Sandra, and finds it difficult to compete with her other lovers.
It's difficult at first to get past the unpleasantness of the subject matter in KISSED, especially when we are treated to scenes of the young Sandra (Natasha Morley) rubbing a dead sparrow all over herself. Cronenberg faced the same intellectual road block with CRASH, but the difference is that Stopkewich actually seems interested in helping the audience to understand her protagonist's obsession. Her narration is surprisingly effective at explaining the reasons for and the impact of Sandra's actions, and Molly Parker plays Sandra as a decent, focused young woman who understands how her necrophilia is viewed by others. Stopkewich doesn't want us to stare at Sandra like a car wreck; she wants to put us inside the car with her (including, like CRASH, in a car wash, which must be the Canadian equivalent of Lover's Lane), as well as inside her head.
One of the more intriguing ironies of KISSED involves Matt, who has a difficult time dealing with the other men in Sandra's life. Stopkewich gives Matt an enigmatic history -- he's a medical student who is taking time off for an unexplained reason -- and Outerbridge gives a painful conviction to his growing frustration with his inability to satisfy Sandra. It is Matt whose obsession becomes dangerous, whose relatively common desire for a woman he can't fully have is played as the real instability in the film. Sandra has come to terms with her unique needs, and it is to Stopkewich's credit that Sandra is portrayed as someone with compassion rather than as a twisted fiend. The arc of the story may be fairly predictable, but that story is skillfully constructed to make the fate of the characters matter. There is an unexpected warmth to KISSED. Being Canadian doesn't mean you have to turn sex -- even sex with a corpse -- into something cold and emotionless.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 petit mort-icians: 7.
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