review: just a kiss
back to reviewing movies. and one of the movies i've watched recently is: just a kiss. Basically, this is the movie description I read on the programme information on cableTV: "a simple kiss between a couple led to the breaking up of friendships and relationship, causing them to find comfort in the hands of strangers. Can they go back to when it's 'just a kiss'?" The show starts at 2am and ends at 3.45pm. And i thought it was about 2 people who like love each other but made a mistake and now are trying to salvage everything. But it's nothing close to that level of depth. It's just as simple as it seems. Take that description totally literally.
The plot is centralled on the consequences on this tight-knit group of friends, Halley, Dag and Peter, due to Dag 'accidentally' kissing Peter's girlfriend Rebecca and ended up having sex. Halley broke up with Dag. Peter is emotionally wounded. Rebecca, out of remorse, gives Halley her room keys. While staying there, she meets Andre a Cellist and had sex with him. Meanwhile, Peter meets Andre's wife Colleen on a plane and they kissed. But because later Peter decided to use the phone to call Rebecca, the plane crashed. Rebecca who had always had emotional problems hears Peter's final words and kills herself. However, peter isn't dead. He is seen on national TV as one of the 2 survivors, the other being Colleen. Colleen is shown in the same news channel to be knocked down by a firetruck in a somewhat comical and dramatic fashion. While all these happened, Dag, who is also remorseful hung out at a bar while he hooks up bartender Paula and was about to have sex, when Paula kicked him off her balcony and he ends up in hospital.
While these 3 are in hospital, Colleen dies from her accident, Rebecca dies from drug overdose because Paula wanted to get rid of her (her real crush is on Peter), and Dag was frightened to death by Paula. Finally the movie rewinds to the scene where Dag only kisses Rebecca but resists sex, thus it's "just a kiss". And resultantly, the consequences were nothing that severe.
Well as a whole you can see that the plot is very happening. But it is amongst the most superficial plots i've known. It was unexplained, uninspired and unnecessary. The idea could have been much more understandable and relatable without the effects they used, with better cinematography and use of music. There seems to lack serious drive in the movie, with narrative drive coming mainly from the quick sequence of events and complexity of break-ups and adultery instead of the expectation of the audience. The movie have failed to appeal to people as a medium of influence, as a emotionally and intellectually altering tool (logos, ethos, pathos). The disconnection between the media and the audience is mostly because of the unrealism of the plot. Though such stuff may happen, the sequence of events make people go "so what?" after the movie. Unfortunately, the acting, atmosphere and ambience did nothing to make it better.
The characters, though, are distinct but flat. Distinctions of character bring through the different courses Halley, Dag and Peter take. But the acting was just enough to make the cut for the character distinction (that isnt a compliment). Although the movie plans to show the adverse consequences on friendship and relationships after even a mistake of kissing someone you shouldn't, the plot goes in a continuous lateral spiral which ends with uncertainty and inconclusion.
Genre: DramaCinematography: 3/5Because camera angles aren't that important in drama, the requirements are bit lower. It has sufficient camera angles professionalism some of the time, right choice of ambience, but poor lighting.
Portrayal: 7/20Actress portraying Halley did OK. Actor acting Dag was crap, even i could do it. that's how bad it is. Actor portraying Peter was like below average. Actress portraying Rebecca was little lower than average. The script does not escalate the element of tension and conflict, nor does the body language shown in the acting. But it's not the worst portrayal i've seen, so, i'd give it a 7.
Directing: 5/20The artistic and dramatic aspects of the play, including music directing. Firstly, superficial stories can only go so far right? Secondly, a lack of drive, an insufficient script. Disconnected series of events which go linear at the end don't work out also. The switching between characters and the story makes it look like a joke and decreases the value of the film sadly. The use of the 'fade out to matt drawing' effect looks nice but wasn't complimented with other elements (it didn't make it worse, nor does it make it better, but since it's unnecessary, it's bound to worsen it). Finally, there is a lack of atmosphere and feel and thus expectation and effect on audience is severely limited.
Story: 3/25Since it's a drama, I've increased it to a 20 to rate a emotionally, intellectually engaging and influencial story. To achieve this, films must have credibility, realism, relatability and must develop the central idea with enough width and depth. However, although it has a good direction, it fails in realism and relatability. The series of events were badly portrayed and these events were just too unrealistic. It may have been a comedy, but this show IS a joke. It has a little bit of relatability because lust, as we know, is a common problem. The development was very wide but haywire at the same time. The unrealism, and undependable development nake this an incredible film lol.
final score: 18/70or25.714%Other scores:
IMDB: 52%
RottenTomatoes: 19%
psst. a part of me died when i saw the imdb ratings.
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