Weird, man...

Prelude to a Kiss has got to be the oddest romantic comedy I’ve ever seen (yet, at any rate). It features Alec Baldwin as Peter Hoskins, whose boring life with job putting images onto microfiche is suddenly made a whole lot more exciting when he meets the somewhat eccentric Rita Boyle (Meg Ryan) – who never sleeps and asks far too many questions - at a party one day. They quickly fall in love and after a whirlwind romance get married. On their wedding day, a strange event leaves Rita acting very peculiarly, and the marriage is under severe strain even before the honeymoon is over. Peter has to solve a mystery of seemingly cosmic proportions to find the woman he loves again.

In doing this he is aided or hindered (well, mostly hindered) by his colleague Taylor (Stanley Tucci), the bride’s parents (Ned Beatty and Patty Duke), and various other characters, especially the old man who nobody knows but who seems to pop up at increasingly regular intervals. His daughter (Kathy Bates) is occasionally on the scene too – well she’s not particularly important to the plot but Kathy Bates is always worth a mention! :-D The storyline begins as a pretty normal romcom, but it enters previously uncharted territory once the wedding takes place.

With its undeniable oddness, Prelude to a Kiss is a film that’s difficult to forget but, I suspect, many people will find it simply too surreal to really enjoy. Even before the odd events the movie is pretty surreal, though I enjoyed this for the most part. The humour is driven almost entirely by witty dialogue, delivered in extremely dead-pan mode by Baldwin, with Ryan playing somewhat against type most of the time. The pacing is a little on the slow side, almost to the point of sluggishness in places, though this kind of goes with the surreality. The theme of the latter part of the plot would seem more at home in a science fiction or possibly fantasy horror film, and to some extent feels rather out of place here. Still, I enjoyed the film, but then I tend to like things that are a little strange! I found the ending sequence a bit weak, but then a storyline this surreal doesn’t have to make complete sense, I guess.

Both Ryan and Baldwin give good performances, neither playing what I would think of as their usual type of character, but being quite convincing in these roles. You really do feel for Peter as he goes through hell on his honeymoon and doesn’t know why. Stanley Tucci is strangely subdued in this film, almost as if his character was meant to have a bigger part but then this idea was scrapped and the writers didn’t have any ideas about how to use his immense talent in a small role. Likewise with Kathy Bates – a fantastic actress, but barely seen. Ned Beatty and Patty Duke were good in their roles, but the star of the show was Sydney Walker as the old man. Even when he just stood there he exuded a quality that just made you fascinated by his character.

A lovely music score was provided by Howard Shore, which really added to the mood of the film. Without the sheer weirdness of it all, this might have been just another nice but forgettable romcom, though if the quality of the writing from the first part of the film had continued, I doubt it. As it is, this is a film that has its integral oddness as its main strength and its main weakness. For those wanting a traditional romantic comedy I wouldn’t recommend Prelude to a Kiss, but if you like films that are a little different, you may well enjoy this. Just be prepared to watch it with a very open mind!

Other Details

Director: Norman Rene
Year of release: 1992
Runtime: 105 minutes
Rating: PG / PG-13

This movie was based on a stage show.


Links

Meg Ryan: French Kiss, When Harry Met Sally, Hanging Up, Top Gun

See also: My Top Ten Romantic Comedies