Kiss the Girls (film)

This article is about a film. For the article about the novel on which it is based, see Kiss the Girls.

Kiss the Girls
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Gary Fleder
Produced by	David Brown Joe Wizan
Written by	David Klass Based on the novel by James Patterson
Starring	Morgan Freeman Ashley Judd Cary Elwes
Music by	Mark Isham
Cinematography	Aaron Schneider
Editing by	Armen Minasian Harvey Rosenstock William Steinkamp
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	October 3, 1997 (1997-10-03)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$27,000,000
Box office	$60,527,873

Kiss the Girls is a 1997 American thriller film directed by Gary Fleder and starring Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes and Ashley Judd. The screenplay by David Klass is based on the best-selling novel Kiss the Girls by James Patterson.

Plot

Washington, D.C. detective and forensic psychologist Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) heads to Durham, North Carolina when his niece Naomi (Gina Ravera), a college student, is reported missing. He learns from the local police, including Nick Ruskin (Cary Elwes), that Naomi is the latest in a series of young women who have vanished. Soon after his arrival, one of the missing women is found dead, bound to a tree in a desolate forest, and shortly after that, intern Kate McTiernan (Ashley Judd) is kidnapped from her home.

When she awakens from a drugged state, Kate discovers that she is being held captive by a masked man calling himself Casanova, and she is one of several prisoners trapped in his lair. She manages to escape and is severely injured when she jumps from a cliff and into a river to escape from his clutches. After she recuperates, she joins forces with Cross to track down her sadomasochist captor, who Cross concludes is a collector, not a killer, unless his victims fail to follow his rules. This means there is time to rescue the other imprisoned women, just as long as they remain subservient.

Clues lead them to Los Angeles, where a series of gruesome kidnappings and murders have been credited to a man known as the Gentleman Caller. Cross deduces he is working in collusion with rather than imitating his East Coast counterpart, but his efforts to capture and question him are foiled and the man escapes. Upon returning to North Carolina, he eventually discovers the underground hideaway used by, as well as the true identity of, the man who calls himself Casanova.

Production

The film shot two weeks on location in North Carolina on the streets of Durham, in nearby County parks, and outside a Chapel Hill, North Carolina residence. The police station was constructed in a downtown Durham warehouse. The majority of filming occurred in the Los Angeles area, with locations including the Disney Ranch, The Athenaeum at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, a house in the Adams historic district of Los Angeles, and on the campus of the University of Southern California in University Park. Designed by American production designer Nelson Coates, the majority of the sets, including the tunnels and underground chambers, were constructed in sound stages on the Paramount Studios lot.

The film premiered at the Deauville Film Festival in September 1997 before opening on 2,271 screens in the US the following month. It earned $13,215,167 in its opening weekend and a total of $60,527,873 in the US, ranking #30 in domestic revenue for the year.

Cast

• Morgan Freeman ..... Alex Cross
• Ashley Judd ..... Dr. Kate McTiernan
• Cary Elwes ..... Det. Nick Ruskin / Casanova
• Alex McArthur ..... Det. Davey Sikes
• Bill Nunn ..... Det. John Sampson
• Jeremy Piven ..... Det. Henry Castillo
• Brian Cox ..... Durham P.D. Chief Hatfield
• Jay O. Sanders ..... FBI Agent Kyle Craig
• Tony Goldwyn ..... Dr. William Rudolph / Gentleman Caller
• William Converse-Roberts ..... Dr. Wick Sachs
• Roma Maffia ..... Dr. Ruocco
• Richard T. Jones ..... Seth Samuel
• Gina Ravera ..... Naomi Cross
• Tatyana Ali ..... Janelle Cross
• Anna Maria Horsford ..... Mrs. Vicki Cross
• Helen Martin ..... Nana Cross

Critical reception

The film received negative reviews and has a "rotten" rating of 30% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Stephen Holden of the New York Times said the film "is cut from the same cloth as The Silence of the Lambs, but the piece of material it uses has the uneven shape and dangling threads of a discarded remnant.... [It] begins promisingly, then loses its direction as the demand for accelerated action overtakes narrative logic." Holden writes of Morgan Freeman that he "projects a kindness, patience and canny intelligence that cut against the movie's fast pace and pumped-up shock effects. His performance is so measured it makes you want to believe in the movie much more than its gimmicky jerry-rigged plot ever permits."

In the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert said, "David Klass, the screenwriter, gives Freeman and Judd more specific dialogue than is usual in thrillers; they sound as if they might actually be talking with each other and not simply advancing plot points.... [They] are so good, you almost wish they'd decided not to make a thriller at all - had simply found a way to construct a drama exploring their personalities."

Rita Kempley of the Washington Post called the film "a tense, scary, perversely creepy thriller" and added, "David Klass ... blessedly deletes the graphic descriptions of torture and rape included in the novel. Unfortunately, he also neglects to include any explanation of Casanova's behavior. Otherwise Kiss the Girls does what it's supposed to do. A solid second film from director Gary Fleder, it's sure to set pulses racing and spines tingling." In the same newspaper, Desson Howe felt "The movie ... operates on the crime-movie equivalent of automatic pilot. It takes off, flies and lands without much creative intervention."

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Stack thought "the story ... goes on too long. It has too many confusing plot twists and keeps losing energy. Blame it on Hollywood excess, or director Gary Fleder's uncertain hand. A cut of 15 minutes would have helped." He was more impressed by the film's stars, calling Morgan Freeman "compelling" and "a hero of extraordinary power that comes almost entirely from his unemotional, calculating calm," and stating that Ashley Judd "gives the sometimes plodding drama a dose of intense vitality. This young actress is getting awfully good at turning potentially gelatinous characters into substantive people who spark viewer interest."

Awards and nominations

Judd was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Drama at the 1998 Satellite Awards.

Controversy in central Virginia

The film was not shown in some theaters in central Virginia at the time of release due to the unsolved murders of three teenage girls in the area. This decision was out of respect for the families and surrounding communities. The murders were eventually solved, being attributed to Richard Evonitz.

External links

• Kiss The Girls at AllRovi
• Kiss The Girls at the Internet Movie Database