Opening Day: 4 February 2010 (EXCLUSIVELY AT THE PICTUREHOUSE)

Synopsis:

On the fringes of Dublin two kids, Kylie and Dylan, live in a suburban housing estate devoid of life, colour and the prospect of escape. Kylie lives with five other siblings and her overworked mother. Next door, Dylan lives in the shadow of an alcoholic father and the memory of an elder brother who ran away from home two years earlier.

After a violent altercation with his father, Dylan runs away from home and Kylie decides to run away with him. Together they make their way to the magical night time lights of inner city Dublin, to search for Dylan's brother, and in the hope of finding, through him, the possibility of a new life.

Lance Daly's vision of Dublin, as seen through the innocent eyes of our protagonists, is a kaleidoscope of magic, wonder and mystery. But as the night wears on, and Dublin takes on a darker character, the two kids have to rely on the kindness of strangers, the advice of Bob Dylan and their trust in each other to survive the night.

Movie Review:

Like last year's charming Irish city musical-romance "Once", Lance Daly taps into the big, bright, damning lights of Dublin to showcase the city's vibrancy and romance amidst the dark alleys and even darker characters that dwell there. The two young leads in “Kisses” – the looks-tough-but-fragile Dylan (Shane Curry) and his companion, the looks-fragile-but-tough Kylie (Kelly O'Neill) – possess the indomitable spirit of confidence in finding a better life away from the ones they find themselves born into. It's the sort of life that hardens the resolve to seek out anything wholly different from the podunk suburban hellhole of drunks, abusive relatives and dead-end existence that cyclically draws in parents and child alike. Dylan and Kylie are precociously cynical kids but still filled with the fleeting quality of innocence of believing that it will all change. Turns out – as the film quickly turns caustic in the depictions of family life – they have every right to be cynical and acutely aware of their dire surroundings.

Daly's keen eye for emotional states starts off superbly. The stark black and white cinematography of its opening act almost recalls the great social realism in British kitchen-sink dramas of the 1960s. Uncompromising in certain points and but riveting in its entirety, Daly conducts a suitably tense atmosphere from its inciting incident to Dylan and Kylie's eventual road trip to Dublin with a fistful of cash and no ideas about the trials awaiting them. The cinematography subtly switches to a rich vein of colour, matching the cityscapes and saturating the screen with the ebullience of a realised freedom. They find that they could possibly achieve anything they want to when they are together. The two leads – Curry and O'Neill – are captivating in their guileless performances. They are honest and courageous and with the heavy accents and cursory enunciations adding to its natural charms and quality of genuineness, the film's best scenes come when they (and we) discover each other's strengths and qualities silently through the tribulations of poverty, crime and hopeless dread encapsulating their hopes.

“Kisses” introduces a motley crew of characters that initiate the two young'uns to city living with their own philosophies on surviving its harsh realities. Hitching a ride on a barge with a Bob Dylan-loving captain, the film begins its trek into overwrought Bob Dylan references (making for a pretty decent soundtrack with Go Blimps Go nonetheless) including the musician's own impersonator doling out some advice to the poor souls lost in the continual hustle and bustle of the city. Daly turns a simple story into an impressionistic Hansel and Gretel-esque fairytale handled with a magnetic zeal. “Kisses” is a wonderfully inventive ode to the innocence that we once harboured and how easily it became lost when the real world finally set in.

Movie Rating:



(Harrowing, charming and ultimately uplifting, “Kisses” is entrancingly filmed)

Review by Justin Deimen