Prelude to a Kiss (film)
Encyclopedia
Prelude to a Kiss is a 1992
American
romantic fantasy film
directed by Norman René
and starring Alec Baldwin
, Meg Ryan
and Sydney Walker
. The screenplay
by Craig Lucas
is based on his 1988 play of the same title.
), a liberal, free-spirited aspiring graphic designer who earns a living as a bartender, falls in love with and marries Peter Hoskins (Alec Baldwin
), the conservative employee of a Chicago
publishing house. At their wedding, the couple is approached by Julius (Sydney Walker
), a lonely, elderly man who requests permission to kiss the bride. When he does, their spirits switch places, leaving Peter with an aged man's soul inside his newly wed bride. Whether or not he can see beyond the physical and embrace the beautiful soul he loves, Julius will agree to return to his cancer-riddled flesh by kissing Rita again.
/Irving Gordon
/Irving Mills
tune of the same name, which is heard performed by Deborah Harry
during the opening credits. The soundtrack also includes the Cole Porter
song "Every Time We Say Goodbye" performed by Annie Lennox
, "The More I See You" and "I Had the Craziest Dream" by Harry Warren
and Mack Gordon
, "A Certain Smile" by Sammy Fain
and Paul Francis Webster
, "The Very Thought of You
" by Ray Noble
, "Sweet Jane" by Lou Reed
, and "Someone Like You" by Van Morrison
. In the beginning, Rita dances to I Touch Myself
.
The film grossed $20,006,730 in the US and $2,690,961 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $22,697,691 .
said, "The sad news about this movie adaptation is that it functions as a cruel critique of the problems that, for whatever reason, did not seem important in the stage production. This Prelude to a Kiss is not only without charm and wit, but it's also clumsily set forth: many people seeing it may wonder what, in heaven's name, is going on . . . The opened-up film lumbers like someone on crutches. Against the literal surroundings of Chicago, the North Shore and Jamaica, Peter, Rita and the old man become perfunctory characters, interesting only for the bizarre situation in which they are caught. They lack any convincing particularity or idiosyncrasy. The same dialogue that served well enough on the stage now sounds arch and coy or metaphysically flat."
Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
said of the film "although it could probably do more with its story, what it does is gentle and moving. The film is fairly hard to categorize, which is one of its strengths . . . Of the dialogue, I'll say how unusual it is for Hollywood characters to talk longingly and thoughtfully about our search for happiness in this world where most assuredly we will die. Prelude to a Kiss is the kind of movie that can inspire long conversations about the only subject really worth talking about, the Meaning of It All . . . The emotional heart of the movie belongs to the old guy, Walker, a New York stage actor who got his first starring role at 71. He is wonderful here. He begins as a block of human wood, an old man who looks as if he has not one single thing to say, and then he develops eloquently into a person of poetry and longing. He is, in many of his scenes, literally playing a woman in her 20s. How he does it - how he gets away with it - is through not just craft, but heart."
In Rolling Stone
, Peter Travers
stated, "Craig Lucas's prince of a play has been turned into a toad of a movie. The disappointment is rending, since Lucas and director Norman René . . . made magic onstage . . . The play challenges us to make an imaginative leap into the wild blue. The film, however much it flails, stays resolutely earthbound."
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly
graded the film C- and added, "Why is Prelude to a Kiss such a washout? I'm afraid it's because the play itself is a whimsically inept piece of high kitsch
- a Twilight Zone
for yuppie
soft-heads . . . The characters . . . aren't fleshed out as human beings; they seem like urban types concocted in screenwriting class. And so the ethereality of the premise never takes hold."
In Variety
, Todd McCarthy observed, "Thanks to a magnetic cast and intelligent adaptation, Prelude to a Kiss has made a solid transfer from stage to screen. Back in the 1930s or '40s, this sort of sophisticated, literary-oriented treatment of a simple romantic idea would have been the norm. Today's general audiences, however, may be put off by the quick-witted talk and mildly confused by the central device, despite its resemblance to Ghost
. . . Baldwin and Ryan make such a winning pair. Looking great and playing a normal guy whose optimism has prevailed over his troubled past, Baldwin is a romantic lead both men and women can enjoy watching. Cuter-than-cute, almost too adorable for words, Ryan rambunctiously embodies the life force even when playing a basically aimless young woman, and the film suffers during her prolonged absence in the later stages."
Rita Kempley of the Washington Post said, "Packed with cheap sentiment and puerile romanticism, Prelude to a Kiss oozes sugarcoated comfort as might a drugstore valentine crushed enthusiastically to the recipient's heaving bosom. A faithful adaptation of Craig Lucas's popular play, it proves a feast for love gourmands, especially those with an appetite for body-swapping. The less starry-eyed viewers . . . will remain starved for the comparative profundity of a leaky Love Boat
rerun."
1992 in film
The year 1992 in film involved many significant films. -Top grossing films:-Awards:Academy AwardsGolden Globe AwardsNational Film Awards...
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
romantic fantasy film
Romantic fantasy
Romantic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy fiction, describing a fantasy story using many of the elements and conventions of the romance genre.One of the key features of romantic fantasy involves the focus on relationships, social, political, and romantic...
directed by Norman René
Norman René
Norman René was an American theatre and film director and film producer who frequently collaborated with playwright Craig Lucas.-Biography:...
and starring Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin
Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
, Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan
Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Bethel, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982...
and Sydney Walker
Sydney Walker
-Early life:Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sydney Walker was primarily a stage actor, performing in twenty-eight Broadway plays between 1961 and 1973...
. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by Craig Lucas
Craig Lucas
Craig Lucas is an American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director.-Biography:...
is based on his 1988 play of the same title.
Plot synopsis
Despite her pessimistic outlook on life, Rita Boyle (Meg RyanMeg Ryan
Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Bethel, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982...
), a liberal, free-spirited aspiring graphic designer who earns a living as a bartender, falls in love with and marries Peter Hoskins (Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin
Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
), the conservative employee of a Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
publishing house. At their wedding, the couple is approached by Julius (Sydney Walker
Sydney Walker
-Early life:Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sydney Walker was primarily a stage actor, performing in twenty-eight Broadway plays between 1961 and 1973...
), a lonely, elderly man who requests permission to kiss the bride. When he does, their spirits switch places, leaving Peter with an aged man's soul inside his newly wed bride. Whether or not he can see beyond the physical and embrace the beautiful soul he loves, Julius will agree to return to his cancer-riddled flesh by kissing Rita again.
Production notes
The film's title is derived from the Duke EllingtonDuke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
/Irving Gordon
Irving Gordon
Irving Gordon was an American songwriter.-Biography:Irving Gordon was born in Brooklyn, New York. As a child, he studied violin, and after attending public schools in New York City, went to work in the Catskill Mountains at some of the resort hotels in the area...
/Irving Mills
Irving Mills
Irving Mills was a jazz music publisher, also known by the name of "Joe Primrose."Mills was born to Jewish parents in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. He founded Mills Music with his brother Jack in 1919...
tune of the same name, which is heard performed by Deborah Harry
Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...
during the opening credits. The soundtrack also includes the Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
song "Every Time We Say Goodbye" performed by Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox, OBE , born Ann Lennox, is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving minor success in the late 1970s with The Tourists, with fellow musician David A...
, "The More I See You" and "I Had the Craziest Dream" by Harry Warren
Harry Warren
Harry Warren was an American composer and lyricist. Warren was the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison,...
and Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon was an American composer and lyricist of songs for the stage and film. He was nominated for the best original song Oscar nine times, including six consecutive years between 1940 and 1945, and won the award once, for "You'll Never Know"...
, "A Certain Smile" by Sammy Fain
Sammy Fain
Sammy Fain was an American composer of popular music.-Biography:Sammy Fain was born in New York City. In 1923, Fain appeared with Artie Dunn in a short film directed by Lee De Forest filmed in DeForest's Phonofilm sound-on-film process. In 1925, Fain left the Fain-Dunn act to devote himself to...
and Paul Francis Webster
Paul Francis Webster
Paul Francis Webster was an American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Song and was nominated sixteen times for the award.-Biography:...
, "The Very Thought of You
The Very Thought of You
"The Very Thought of You" is a pop standard published in 1934, with music and lyrics by Ray Noble. In addition to Noble's own hit recording of the song with his orchestra, featuring the vocals of Al Bowlly, there was also a popular version recorded that same year by Bing Crosby. A decade later, the...
" by Ray Noble
Ray Noble (musician)
Ray Noble was an English bandleader, composer, arranger and actor. Noble studied music at the Royal Academy of Music and became leader of the HMV Records studio band in 1929. The band, known as the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, featured members of many of the top hotel orchestras of the day...
, "Sweet Jane" by Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
, and "Someone Like You" by Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
. In the beginning, Rita dances to I Touch Myself
I Touch Myself
"I Touch Myself" is a 1990 single by the Australian rock band Divinyls. The song was written by Divinyls bandmembers Christina Amphlett and Mark McEntee and professional songwriters Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg for the band's self-titled album...
.
The film grossed $20,006,730 in the US and $2,690,961 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $22,697,691 .
Principal cast
- Alec BaldwinAlec BaldwinAlexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
as Peter Hoskins - Meg RyanMeg RyanMargaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Bethel, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982...
as Rita Boyle - Sydney WalkerSydney Walker-Early life:Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sydney Walker was primarily a stage actor, performing in twenty-eight Broadway plays between 1961 and 1973...
as Julius - Kathy BatesKathy BatesKathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates is an American actress and director.After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery , for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe...
as Leah Blier - Ned BeattyNed BeattyNed Thomas Beatty is an American actor who has appeared in more than 100 films and has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain and a Golden Globe Award; won a Drama Desk Award....
as Dr. Boyle - Patty DukePatty DukeAnna Marie "Patty" Duke is an American actress of stage, film, and television. First becoming famous as a child star, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 16, and later starring in her eponymous sitcom for three years, she progressed to more mature roles upon playing Neely...
as Mrs. Boyle - Stanley TucciStanley TucciStanley Tucci is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He has been nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in The Lovely Bones...
as Taylor - Debra MonkDebra MonkDebra Monk is an American actress, singer, and writer.Monk was born in Middletown, Ohio. She was voted "best personality" by the graduating class at Wheaton High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. She graduated from Frostburg State University in 1963...
as Aunt Dorothy
Critical reception
In his review in the New York Times, Vincent CanbyVincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
said, "The sad news about this movie adaptation is that it functions as a cruel critique of the problems that, for whatever reason, did not seem important in the stage production. This Prelude to a Kiss is not only without charm and wit, but it's also clumsily set forth: many people seeing it may wonder what, in heaven's name, is going on . . . The opened-up film lumbers like someone on crutches. Against the literal surroundings of Chicago, the North Shore and Jamaica, Peter, Rita and the old man become perfunctory characters, interesting only for the bizarre situation in which they are caught. They lack any convincing particularity or idiosyncrasy. The same dialogue that served well enough on the stage now sounds arch and coy or metaphysically flat."
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
said of the film "although it could probably do more with its story, what it does is gentle and moving. The film is fairly hard to categorize, which is one of its strengths . . . Of the dialogue, I'll say how unusual it is for Hollywood characters to talk longingly and thoughtfully about our search for happiness in this world where most assuredly we will die. Prelude to a Kiss is the kind of movie that can inspire long conversations about the only subject really worth talking about, the Meaning of It All . . . The emotional heart of the movie belongs to the old guy, Walker, a New York stage actor who got his first starring role at 71. He is wonderful here. He begins as a block of human wood, an old man who looks as if he has not one single thing to say, and then he develops eloquently into a person of poetry and longing. He is, in many of his scenes, literally playing a woman in her 20s. How he does it - how he gets away with it - is through not just craft, but heart."
In Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
stated, "Craig Lucas's prince of a play has been turned into a toad of a movie. The disappointment is rending, since Lucas and director Norman René . . . made magic onstage . . . The play challenges us to make an imaginative leap into the wild blue. The film, however much it flails, stays resolutely earthbound."
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
graded the film C- and added, "Why is Prelude to a Kiss such a washout? I'm afraid it's because the play itself is a whimsically inept piece of high kitsch
Kitsch
Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...
- a Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
for yuppie
Yuppie
Yuppie is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early-1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late-1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession...
soft-heads . . . The characters . . . aren't fleshed out as human beings; they seem like urban types concocted in screenwriting class. And so the ethereality of the premise never takes hold."
In Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, Todd McCarthy observed, "Thanks to a magnetic cast and intelligent adaptation, Prelude to a Kiss has made a solid transfer from stage to screen. Back in the 1930s or '40s, this sort of sophisticated, literary-oriented treatment of a simple romantic idea would have been the norm. Today's general audiences, however, may be put off by the quick-witted talk and mildly confused by the central device, despite its resemblance to Ghost
Ghost (film)
Ghost is a 1990 romantic drama film starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. It was written by Bruce Joel Rubin and directed by Jerry Zucker.-Plot:...
. . . Baldwin and Ryan make such a winning pair. Looking great and playing a normal guy whose optimism has prevailed over his troubled past, Baldwin is a romantic lead both men and women can enjoy watching. Cuter-than-cute, almost too adorable for words, Ryan rambunctiously embodies the life force even when playing a basically aimless young woman, and the film suffers during her prolonged absence in the later stages."
Rita Kempley of the Washington Post said, "Packed with cheap sentiment and puerile romanticism, Prelude to a Kiss oozes sugarcoated comfort as might a drugstore valentine crushed enthusiastically to the recipient's heaving bosom. A faithful adaptation of Craig Lucas's popular play, it proves a feast for love gourmands, especially those with an appetite for body-swapping. The less starry-eyed viewers . . . will remain starved for the comparative profundity of a leaky Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
rerun."