Film Review: A Kiss Before Dying (1991)

drax(76)

Published in

Movies & TV Shows

Words

613

Reading

3 min

Listen

Play

(source: tmdb.org)

American writer Ira Levin, while not as prolific as Stephen King, shared King’s good fortune of having almost all of his novels adapted to screen. Some of those adaptations, like Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives and The Boys from Brazil, became classics. His debut novel A Kiss Before Dying won prestigious Edgar Award and later received even greater honour of being adapted by Hollywood twice. First adaptation, made in 1956, was often considered one of the first big film noirs made in colour. Second adaptation, written and directed by James Dearden, wasn’t that successful.

The main character, played by Matt Dillon, is Jonathan Corliss, young man who grew up in lower class home near railroad tracks carrying train owned by major cooper tycoon Thor Carlsson (played by Max von Sydow). Plot begins in 1987 at University of Pennsylvania where Jonathan dates Carlsson’s daughter Dorothy (played by Sean Young) hoping to gain wealth by becoming part of family. Dorothy, however, disrupts those plans by getting pregnant and risking being disinherited, which would make all Jonathan’s efforts fruitless. He reacts by murdering Dorothy and staging the incident to look like suicide. Later, he assumes new identity and begins to pursue Dorothy’s twin sister Ellen (also played by Young). She falls for charming man and gets married, after which Jonathan tries to impress his father-in-law. This results in his getting top job in Carlsson’s company, after which he neglects his wife. Ellen, however, never believed that her sister had committed suicide and begins to investigate. Since Jonathan is quite capable of permanently silencing any witnesses or anyone who could stand in his way, Ellen’s life is in danger.

James Dearden, son of famed British director Basil Dearden, was best known as author of screenplay for Fatal Attraction, one of the most successful and influential 1980s thrillers. This film failed to repeat that success, although Dearden’s direction has little to do with it. Dearden made A Kiss Before Dying as an old school thriller, with old school music score by Howard Shore and old school special effects, like matte paintings, in some of pivotal scenes. Dearden was obviously inspired by Hitchcock, including his masterpiece Vertigo, which is directly referenced in the film. The thing that puts this film in late 20th Century, apart from props, costumes and music, is nudity and a steamy love scene that looks a little bit gratuitous. Bigger problem for film is poor characterisation. Matt Dillon is good actor, but character of Jonathan Corliss is one-dimensional and too focused on his mission; the audience is left to ponder why he became ruthless murderer, despite the character himself offering justification by describing his actions as some kind of perverted version of American Dream. Another problem is Sean Young who handles her double role well, but simply lacks chemistry with Dillon. Dearden is tries to create Hitchockian suspense by giving Jonathan almost superhuman abilities and turning him into murderous machine more like Terminator than character in Hitchockian thriller. The final showdown is, however, quite predictable and its outcome anti-climactic. A Kiss Before Dying was failure at box office and among critics. Sean Young later became first actress to “win” Razzie for both Worst Actress and Worst Supporting Actress. That “honour” is unjustified and the film is much better than its reputation. Dearden managed to pack everything into hour and half of running time, resulting in mildly entertaining and easily digestible film that nevertheless shows that it might have been much better.

RATING: 5/10 (++)