Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The_Film_Cricket To understand a person's fetish, my guess is that you would have to share that fetish. Maybe that's why it's hard to get close to Sandra Larson, the necrophiliac at the center of 'Kissed', a bold film by Canadian director Lynn Stopkewich. This was the film that caused a huge stink at the Toronto Film Festival only because it is about a necrophiliac.But Stopkewich walks a very fine line to avoid making the film exploitive or ridiculous. She could have made the worst film of the year but her frankness and restraint keep the viewer fascinated but not repelled.The center of the film is Sandra who from childhood has had a fascination with death. She describes one summer with her friend when they would find dead animals and have funerals for them. At nightfall she would perform the strange ritual of shrouding the body and then rubbing it on her skin which she calls 'anointing'.As a young woman (played by Molly Parker) working in a flower shop she is overjoyed when she is allowed to make a delivery to the local funeral home and soon she is working there. When she touches the bodies we don't sense a sick fascination but a passage, a transcendence which she calls 'crossing over'. When she touches the bodies there is a heavenly light, accompanied by an angelic chorus. This could have been done in very poor taste but we understand from the intensity in Parker's performance that there is something very serious going on, something about setting them free, 'Each of them has its own wisdom, innocence, happiness, grief. I see it' While in college she meets a man who, oddly enough, is fascinated by what she is doing. 'Why would you want to be an embalmer?' he asks her on their first meeting. 'Because of the bodies, I make love to them' she says without missing a beat. He is interested in her attraction but doesn't understand the emotional bond. He grows jealous of her attraction to the dead and is willing to do anything to gain her affections.The scenes in which she performs her rituals are done with extreme restraint. Stopkewich uses her camera to suggest what Sandra is doing but then pulls back so that he have only the idea. The movie is never interested in the mechanics of Sandra's sexuality but more in its spiritual nature.

christopher-underwood Obviously not for everyone but I just love this little film. I am sure there are plot holes galore but I am persuaded by the film's inner truth. From those early shots of the young girl's ritualistic behaviour and the chilling/exciting manner in which she strokes herself with the little parcels, one is surely hooked and ready to explore the world of this young lady who wishes to cavort with the departed. There is just enough humour and masses of emotion. Molly Parker and Peter Outerbridge are most convincing in their difficult roles, his probably even more difficult than hers. She has to convince us of the attractiveness of the unthinkable but he has to convince us that he can go along with all this as her girlfriend, and does. It reminded me a bit of Peter Jackson's, Heavenly Creatures (back when he made real films!) and I think it was because of that rarely convincingly conveyed mix of true innocence and corruption. Heady stuff,

rqwxyz Maybe the greatest achievement of the film is that it was able to deal with an subject such as necrophilia without falling into tastelessness. It's easy getting horrified at the idea of people being sexually attracted for corpses, but the relationship of mankind with death (That primigenial and fascinating fear) can go that far and, if you think of it, it goes way far beyond . If you are not willing to get into any reflexions about how the dead are treated, you may fell uneasy about the film. The contrast between Sandra and the other people manipulating bodies (the teachers, the embalmer) is rather eloquent.But what I personally liked the best about it is how it figures relationships, elucidating the insane need of one not having the other have its own and private corner, the need of forcing the other to share it, and the woe that comes from not being able to stand it. In this line, necrophilia becomes just an excuse.

talltale-1 Film lovers: Please don't pay too much attention to the Marco Devilboy review of this unusual film. I can understand someone not enjoying KISSED because it deals with a supremely unappetizing subject. But then it quietly, delicately opens up that subject (and the characters involved) and wraps the viewer in an embrace that becomes both irresistible and horrifying. The movie works. When I first saw it, it introduced me to a young actress I have since followed and never seen give a bad performance: Molly Parker. Peter Outerbridge is wonderful, too. Recalling this film now, several years after first watching it, such a rush of thoughts and feelings come back to me that I will probably have to see it once again. If you are willing to go somewhere you never imagined you would find yourself--and then deal with what you discover there--KISSED is not to missed.