Prelude to a Kiss (1992)

Directed by Norman René. Starring Alec Baldwin, Meg Ryan, Sydney Walker, Stanley Tucci, Patty Duke, Ned Beatty, Kathy Bates, Rocky Carroll, Debra Monk. [PG-13]

Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy marries girl, girl gets kissed by some strange old man on her wedding day and suddenly girl is no longer the same girl. Or something like that. Based on a play by Craig Lucas, the story requires a considerable leap of faith from the audience; beyond its bizarre plot device, this is a fairly conventional love story with some fairly unconventional dialogue (some of it in the refreshingly quirky camp, other parts in the no-one-would-ever-say-those-words camp). The incredulous behavior from the characters is purely at the service of letting the apparatus play out, contrivances so frustrating that it’s easy to miss a few fairly inspired, even philosophical, remarks about life and love. No faulting the cast for never making the material click (no one is great here, but they’re all adequate or better); too much delicacy is applied to the story’s labored contortions when a bolder, deeper and more idiosyncratic hand was needed.

44/100