Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

ChikPapa Very disappointed :(

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

seymourblack-1 Ira Levin's 1953 novel of the same name provides the inspiration for this offbeat thriller which features an homme fatale who marries for money, is driven by an unusual obsession and kills without compunction. He's dangerous, duplicitous and driven by a lust for wealth, power and status that's so strong that it makes him deal ruthlessly with any impediments that get in his way. Because he's handsome, an inveterate schemer and also appears to be very personable, the danger he poses isn't readily apparent to other people and it's this quality that's well exploited to provide "A Kiss Before Dying" with most of its suspense.Since his early childhood, Jonathan Corliss (Matt Dillon) had been obsessed by the wealth and power of the Carlsson family who owned the local copper mining company and this triggered in him a determination to achieve the same level of success and prestige in his own life. As a student at the University of Pennsylvania, he takes his first steps to achieving his goal by dating Dorothy Carlsson (Sean Young), the blonde daughter of the company's owner. Their relationship is kept a secret from their fellow students and goes well until Dorothy tells Jonathan that she's pregnant and feels compelled to get married without delay, even though this would inevitably mean being disinherited by her very conservative father. Jonathan seems to play along with the idea of getting married when the couple go to Philadelphia City Hall but arranges to arrive when the marriage licence bureau is closed and then suggests that they pass their waiting time up on the roof of the building. It's there that he takes the opportunity to throw Dorothy off a ledge to her certain death and casually leaves the building unnoticed as a crowd gather's around his victim's blood-covered body.Dorothy's death is treated as a suicide by the authorities but her twin sister Ellen (also played by Sean Young) doesn't believe this verdict for a minute. She knows it would have been totally out of character for her sister to do such a thing and her view is reinforced by the discovery that on the day of her death, Dorothy had bought a new pair of shoes.Jonathan hitch-hikes to New York and his conversation with his driver fortuitously provides him with all the material he needs to assume a new identity when he becomes a social worker and colleague of Ellen Carlsson who he befriends and later marries. As Jay Faraday, Jonathan gradually seems to achieve what he wanted after cleverly gaining the confidence of Ellen's father, Thor Carlsson (Max von Sydow) and being appointed to a high-powered job in his company. Ellen's continued determination to discover the truth about her twin's death, however, continues to cause problems which he naturally confronts very directly.What makes Jonathan Corliss' obsession so unusual is the way in which he seems to regard the Carlssons as being synonymous with everything he craves rather than just being an example of it and it's this that makes him such a danger to that family. His obsession stems from his modest background and his childhood, during which he used to stare at the freight trains passing by his home and noticed the words "Carlsson Copper Corp" which were prominently displayed on the sides of each truck.The brooding quality that Matt Dillon shows at various junctures effectively signals the presence of his obsession and the subtle ways in which he balances his character's psychopathic and more conventional behaviours also makes his performance both strong and effective. There are also good supporting performances from Max von Sydow and Diane Ladd (as Jonathan's mother) but Sean Young's portrayal of Ellen is quite expressionless at times and for this reason fails to be convincing.The plot of the 1956 forerunner of this movie (which starred Robert Wagner and Joanne Woodward) has been tweaked to make it better attuned to its 1980s setting and is also well-served by having been injected with plenty of pace and tension. The story itself is also sufficiently different from most similar thrillers to easily sustain its audience's high level of interest from start to finish.

MBunge This is a remake of a 1956 movie and I can't imagine any remake has more closely resembled a reanimated corpse than this version of A Kiss Before Dying. This lifeless husk just sort of shambles along, letting out the occasional groan, before finally being put out of its misery.The film starts with Jonathan Corliss (Matt Dillon) throwing his girlfriend Dorothy Carlsson (Sean Young) off the roof of Philadelphia's city hall. The splat Dorothy make on the marble floor where she lands is one of only three good things in this movie. The police believe Dorothy's death is a suicide, something her super rich father (Max von Sydow) is happy to go along with. Her twin sister Ellen (Sean Young, duh!) doesn't buy it though and tries to investigate on her own. Months and months go buy and to cover his tracks, Jonathan eventually kills an old boyfriend of Dorothy and frames him for her murder. That's when we discover that Jonathan has actually become Ellen's new boyfriend as part of a scheme to get a job with Ellen and Dorothy's super rich daddy. If you're wondering if Ellen ever discovers Jonathan's scheme and realizes he killed her sister…you're probably just dim enough to like A Kiss Before Dying.The crucial and glaring problem with this movie is that none of the characters have any human depth to them at all. They're nothing but nails that get pounded down by the Almighty Plot Hammer. Jonathan Corliss has absolutely no internal life. He might as well be a ticking clock or some other mechanism. Dorothy/Ellen are almost as bad, though Sean Young going topless as Ellen does grant that character a smidgen of prurient appeal. And let me be clear. Young and Matt Dillon are not at fault here. It's not that they're giving flat, uninspired performances. These actors are just trapped inside roles that make them nothing more than props. There's never a moment when either Ellen or Jonathan are real people doing real things. They're only puppets being obviously manipulated in whatever way the plot needs them to go.That plot is a less glaring but still significant problem. Maybe the idea of a guy weaving a multi-year scheme where he kills several people so he can become a rich man's personal assistant made sense in 1956, but I don't think it passes muster in 1991 and it's even dumber today. I sat through this film waiting to find out what was Jonathan's goal. Why was he doing all of this? It wasn't until about a half hour after he got the job with Ellen's dad that I realized, that was his only goal. He wasn't going to kill Ellen, he wasn't going to kill her dad, he wasn't going to try and take over or destroy her dad's company. He just wanted a job above middle management. But considering how many years he spent sociopathically devoted to his scheme, Jonathan might have been able to accomplish the same thing if he had just applied for a job in the mailroom.Oh, and the whole reason he had to kill Dorothy and start his plan over with Ellen REALLY doesn't fly in 1991. When your story turns on something that might have been shocking in 1956 but is fairly blase in 1991, you've got to change that plot point in some way to match modern sensibilities. Writer/director James Dearden tries to skip over that incongruity with a single line of dialog at the end, but it doesn't work.I did say there were two other good things in this film. One is the aforementioned topless Sean Young. The other is the very Hitchcockian shot when Ellen finally realizes the truth about Jonathan. Unfortunately, two great camera shots and Sean Young's boobs, as nice as they are, can't carry an entire film by themselves.A Kiss Before Dying has something of a reputation for being infamously bad. It doesn't live down to that expectation. There's no gross storytelling or performing incompetence on display here. There just isn't a spark or glimmer of living, breathing humanity anywhere in this film.

gcd70 Remake of the Fifties 'film noir' of the same name, this movie from the writer of "Fatal Attraction" turns out to be an entertaining and tense thriller about a young man (Matt Dillon) obsessed with a family's wealth and power. Dillon's character, Jonathan Corliss (a part that perhaps could have been played a little 'darker'), proceeds to infiltrate the family via relationships with twin sisters, played well by Sean Young.Although the ending is all too brief, and shock misused where intrigue may have been better, the plot is well handled by James Dearden; especially the first murder, which may surprise those not familiar with the book.Sunday, June 23, 1991 - Knox District Centre

bronty Poor Sean Young. Once upon a time she was an actress with such a bright future, poised, seemingly, for great stardom. She even had a quality that recalled some of the glamour and allure of the 40's and 50's. Put to good use in such films as "Blade Runner" and "No Way Out", there seemed nearly no end in sight. And then her "difficult" personality got in the way and Oliver Stone fired her from "Wall Street", in which she was to have a major part; then her alleged relationship with former co-star James Woods, and subsequent "Fatal Attraction"-style antics against him, in addition to her amusingly disturbing all-out efforts to snag the role of 'Catwoman' in the first sequel to "Batman", seemed to have a snowball effect, effectively curtailing her trajectory and reducing her to such projects as "Dr Jekyll and Ms Hyde" and numerous direct-to-cable/video duds. While "A Kiss Before Dying" has a much better pedigree than "Dr Jekyll and Ms Hyde" ever could, thanks in part to being based on a solid, little Ira Levin book and blessed with at least two respected actors (Diane Ladd and Max Von Sydow), it, too, is a near-total failure, and Sean Young is, sadly, a major factor as to 'why'. With a strong director and viable material, she has proved to be a good actor and oddly charismatic, even when the film didn't warrant it (see "Blade Runner"). She was never a GREAT actress, mind you, but had an unmistakable appeal. Here, however, even that appeal seems gone, for nothing can disguise her sleepwalking performance in a dual role as twins, one of whom is murdered (her death scene is brutal), the other of whom decides to investigate the death, never believing it was the suicide it was assumed to be. Soon after her investigation begins, she meets the man who, unbeknownst to her, murdered her sister. This man is played by Matt Dillon, who is supposed to be charming, seductive, secretive, elusive, and ruthless. While one can easily imagine an actor as physically pretty as Robert Wagner - he wasn't just 'handsome', he was 'pretty', let's face it - Matt Dillon is simply wrong, in every manner, for this part. Totally miscast, he is neither particularly charming nor seductive, and seemingly unable to register the ruthlessness and danger the part calls for. His thick, New York accent is also a distraction, at least in this role. That he and Young have absolutely no chemistry doesn't help matters any, making yet another major quibble a minor one: both seem a bit too old. In supporting roles, as Dillon's mother and Young's father, Diane Ladd and Max Von Sydow provide much-needed class to the potboiler/neo-noir proceedings, though Ladd comes off more successfully; Von Sydow is utterly wasted. ANY actor could have done his role - why choose someone SO spectacularly talented for such a thankless part? As for the screenplay, though based on the book, it seems to be stuffed with every cliché from every modern-day thriller, right down to the routine and predictable climax (apparently reshot after test audiences didn't approve) and the pointless, if limited, sex scenes, which might titillate some (thanks to mild nudity) but do nothing to further the plot or add to the tension. The direction, too, is at fault: since everything here is something you've seen before (and in much better films), and nearly each moment is telegraphed well in advance, there are practically zero chills or thrills to be had. Strong actors may have been able to smooth over these problems, but again, the film is done no service by its leads, particularly Young, who is plain AWFUL. It surely stands with Demi Moore in "The Scarlet Letter" and Elizabeth Berkley in "Showgirls" as being one of THE worst performances in a major motion picture - and, perhaps, even WORSE because Young is playing TWO parts. She rightfully won her 2 Razzies (for Worst Actress and Supporting Actress). But, as said, Dillon's not too much better. A little bit but not much. HIS line readings, at least, don't suggest a coma. Unfortunately, for the audience, a coma might just be preferable to sitting through this lot.