- This article is about a film. For the article about the novel on which it is based, see Kiss the Girls.
Kiss the Girls is a 1997 American thriller film directed by Gary Fleder. The screenplay by David Klass is based on the bestselling 1995 novel of the same name by James Patterson. Although Kiss the Girls was the second book in Patterson's Alex Cross series, it was filmed before its predecessor, Along Came a Spider, which was adapted for a feature film in 2001.
Plot
Washington, D.C. detective and forensic psychologist Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) heads to Durham, North Carolina when his niece Naomi (Gina Ravera), a college student, is reported missing. He learns from the local police, including Nick Ruskin (Cary Elwes), that Naomi is the latest in a series of young women who have vanished. Soon after his arrival, one of the missing women is found dead, bound to a tree in a desolate forest, and shortly after that, intern Kate McTiernan (Ashley Judd) is kidnapped from her home.
When she awakens from a drugged state, Kate discovers she is being held captive by a masked man calling himself Casanova, and she is one of several prisoners trapped in his lair. She manages to escape and is severely injured when she jumps from a cliff and into a river to escape from his clutches. After she recuperates, she joins forces with Cross to track down her sadomasochist captor, who Cross concludes is a collector, not a killer, unless his victims fail to follow his rules. This means there is time to rescue the other imprisoned women, just as long as they remain subservient.
Clues lead them to Los Angeles, where a series of gruesome kidnappings and murders have been credited to a man known as the Gentleman Caller. Cross deduces he is working in collusion with rather than imitating his East Coast counterpart, but his efforts to capture and question him are foiled and the man escapes. Upon returning to North Carolina, he eventually discovers the underground hideaway used by, as well as the true identity of, the man who calls himself Casanova.
Production
The film shot two weeks on location in North Carolina on the streets of Durham, in nearby County parks, and outside a Chapel Hill, North Carolina residence. The police station was constructed in a downtown Durham warehouse. The majority of filming occurred in the Los Angeles area, with locations including the Disney Ranch, The Anthenaum at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, a house in the Adams historic district of Los Angeles, and on the campus of the University of Southern California in University Park. Designed by American production designer Nelson Coates, the majority of the sets, including the tunnels and underground chambers, were constructed in sound stages on the Paramount Studios lot.
The film premiered at the Deauville Film Festival in September 1997 before opening on 2,271 screens in the US the following month. It earned $13,215,167 in its opening weekend and a total of $60,527,873 in the US, ranking #30 in domestic revenue for the year.[1]
Cast
Critical reception
Stephen Holden of the New York Times said the film "is cut from the same cloth as The Silence of the Lambs, but the piece of material it uses has the uneven shape and dangling threads of a discarded remnant ... [It] begins promisingly, then loses its direction as the demand for accelerated action overtakes narrative logic." Of Morgan Freeman, he said, "[He] projects a kindness, patience and canny intelligence that cut against the movie's fast pace and pumped-up shock effects. His performance is so measured it makes you want to believe in the movie much more than its gimmicky jerry-rigged plot ever permits."[2]
In the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert said, "David Klass, the screenwriter, gives Freeman and Judd more specific dialogue than is usual in thrillers; they sound as if they might actually be talking with each other and not simply advancing plot points ... [They] are so good, you almost wish they'd decided not to make a thriller at all - had simply found a way to construct a drama exploring their personalities."[3]
Rita Kempley of the Washington Post called the film "a tense, scary, perversely creepy thriller" and added, "David Klass ... blessedly deletes the graphic descriptions of torture and rape included in the novel. Unfortunately, he also neglects to include any explanation of Casanova's behavior. Otherwise Kiss the Girls does what it's supposed to do. A solid second film from director Gary Fleder, it's sure to set pulses racing and spines tingling."[4] In the same newspaper, Desson Howe felt "The movie ... operates on the crime-movie equivalent of automatic pilot. It takes off, flies and lands without much creative intervention."[5]
In the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Stack thought "the story ... goes on too long. It has too many confusing plot twists and keeps losing energy. Blame it on Hollywood excess, or director Gary Fleder's uncertain hand. A cut of 15 minutes would have helped." He was more impressed by the film's stars, calling Morgan Freeman "compelling ... a hero of extraordinary power that comes almost entirely from his unemotional, calculating calm" and stating Ashley Judd "gives the sometimes plodding drama a dose of intense vitality. This young actress is getting awfully good at turning potentially gelatinous characters into substantive people who spark viewer interest."[6]
Awards and nominations
Ashley Judd was nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Drama.
References
- ^ BoxOfficeMojo.com
- ^ New York Times, October 3, 1997
- ^ Chicago Sun-Times, October 3, 1997
- ^ Washington Post, October 3, 1997
- ^ Washington Post, October 3, 1997
- ^ San Francisco Chronicle, October 3, 1997
External links
