Kiss the Girls Review by Larry McGillicuddy Copyright Larry McGillicuddy
**** (out of 4) Directed by Gary Fleder Starring Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Cary Elwes, Jay O. Sanders, Bill Nunn, Tony Goldwyn, Jeremy Piven
Great characters can carry a substandard story very far. If you can become involved in them, it overshadows the weaker plot aspects and makes a movie entertaining. On the other hand, if you have a solid, if somewhat familiar story, great characters can make that movie a memorable viewing experience and one of the most entertaining films of the year. Kiss the Girls is that kind of movie.
Morgan Freeman stars as Alex Cross, a forensic psychologist who comes to North Carolina to investigate the disappearance of several young women, one of whom is his own neice. Cross is a quietly intense man who could be ready to break out in rage at any moment. The police chief warns him about not overstepping his bounds in one of the more cliched scenes in the movie, but as the movie progresses there is no attempt to derail Freeman's involvement in the investigation.
All of the kidnap victims are beautiful, strong, and talented women in their 20's So the first time we see Ashley Judd appear in the movie, we know what's going to happen. Judd plays a lonely medical intern who trains at kickboxing. She is kidnapped from her house, in a terrifyingly effective sequence that would make Wes Craven proud.
The kidnapper's dungeon has an errie and creative design. While spending time in the dungeon, Judd goes through a range of emotions and this is when her character really start to take focus, and Judd gets to display her expansive range. Then in an absolutely brilliant suspense sequence, Judd makes her escape, blinded by the first sign of light and lost among the dizzying pattern of the forest. The sequence ends with an effective lift from the Fugitive.
>From then on, the movie takes the form of a buddy movie, as Freeman and Judd team up to find this mysterious kidnapper. The teaming up of two of the most natural actors in Hollywood proves to be a terrific casting decision. Freeman and Judd work off each other like seasoned pros and their unforced chemistry in every scene is fascinating.
Kiss the Girls does run into a few problems, but it's hard to remember them now. With such talent on hand, the flaws are remembered for a couple minutes and then are just an afterthought, if that. Gary Fleder shows an impressive ability in staging his suspense and action sequences, and in between, he lets Freeman and Judd do their stuff, unhindered by lame pseudo-fancy camera shots that many younger directors think make a great film these days. Kiss the Girls may have a story with some familiar aspects, but the execution is near perfect from all involved. Let's get Freeman and Judd together in another movie immediately.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews