Kiss The Girls (1997) A movie review by Serdar Yegulalp (C) 1997 by Serdar Yegulalp
CAPSULE: Not the narrative juggernaut that SE7EN was, but a smart and well-wired thriller nonetheless, with sterling performances all around.
KISS THE GIRLS had many people muttering "SE7EN knock-off" when the trailers ran for it. It's understandable: Both films feature Morgan Freeman on the trail of a serial killer of fiendish intelligence and cleverness. There, the similarities end. KISS THE GIRLS is not the monster that SE7EN was, but is a well-made and intelligently assembled movie that packs a good deal of power.
>From the moment Morgan Freeman appeared on the screen, no convincing is needed to tell us that Alex Cross, his character in GIRLS, is not Detective Somerset from SE7EN. He is not rehashing the role; this is a new character built from the ground up, and it's a testament to Freeman's skill as an actor that we can sense this instantly, just from the way he sizes up a roomful of evidence and talks down a suicidal woman.
Cross's niece has gone missing, and he journeys to North Carolina, fearful that the girl may have become the victim of a serial killer who bills himself as "Casanova". He is right, and he also makes a slew of educated guesses as to the killer's m.o.: Casanova isn't so much a killer as a collector, and is hard at work throwing the cops off the trail with deceptive murders.
Then there's a huge break in the case: a doctor, Kate McTiernan (Ashley Judd, her best role so far), manages to escape from the lair where she and several other kidnapped girls are being held. She is full of guilt over not having been able to free the other girls, but Cross is determined to find Casanova as well. They're a nice team; they break out of the one-up/one-down dynamic that so many movies like this set up.
There's a great deal more to the plot than would be fair to reveal in a review. I will say that the movie has one piece of deception in store that seems out of keeping with its ambitions. For most of the way, KISS THE GIRLS is content to give us a solid story that springs out of the motivations of the characters, known or unknown -- in other words, it's not critical that we know who the killer is. Then in the final act, we find out that it's someone we've already been introduced to, and that slightly undermines what came before. It's not a fatal mistake, and there are probably many people who won't object to it, but it seems somewhat tacked-on.
Despite this, KISS THE GIRLS makes a fine addition to a small list of movies that intelligently explore the concept of obsessives and serial murder, and that do it with characters that are no less compelling and interesting than the one being chased.
Three and a half out of four violin strings.
syegul@ix.netcom.com EFNet IRC: GinRei http://www.io.com/~syegul another worldly device... you can crush me as I speak/write on rocks what you feel/now feel this truth =smilin' in your face, all the time wanna take your place, the BACKSTABBERS=
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