Kiss The Bride (2004)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Film: C+
One thing we are seeing more of, but still not enough, is
more female directors getting a chance to make feature films. Vanessa Parise wrote, co-produced,
co-starred and directed Kiss The Bride, a lite romantic comedy from 2004
that has its moments and a decent cast to boot. Niki (Brooke Langton) and Chrissy (Parise) reunite to try to save
their long friendship as Danni (Amanda Detmer) is about to wed and the parents
(Talia Shire and Burt Young) watch on hoping for the best.
Can they leave the dysfunctional past behind and make
things the way they should? Well, add
some amusing boyfriends (Johnathon Schaech, Sean Patrick Flannery, Johnny
Whitworth) and a couple of lesbian girlfriends (Monet Mazur, Alyssa Milano) and
you have a few plotlines going on, but it is handled in a way that is real and
intelligent. Though there are no sex
scenes per se (perhaps the skinny-dipping moment is an intended, ironic
substitute for “money shots” or the like), everyone is believable in their
roles, but some of Parise’s inexperience gets in the way of some good ideas and
putting her sensitivities on the screen.
They have a realness to them that allow you to see why all these actors,
especially a good number of names I certainly recognized, signed on. The results are just mixed, but were worth a
look.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is from a clean
source, but Rob Sweeney’s cinematography seems more muted that it should in
color and detail than a film without desaturated color should. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is the highlight
with a decent score by Jeremy Parise, who helps bring the film above its
dialogue-based drama. The extras
include a trailer for the film and a generous amount of video clips with
interviews of several of the actors.
Vanessa Parise is poised to breakout if she gets better with her next
film. By the way, the Elton John hit
that shares a title with this film does not surface on the soundtrack.
- Nicholas Sheffo
