Kiss Or Kill

Frances O'Connor (Love And Other Catastrophes) and Matt Day (Muriel's Wedding and Doing Time For Patsy Cline) are petty criminals on the run; in a scramble across the Nullarbor followed by a trail of corpses.

The coppers are also on the trail, played by Chris Haywood and Andrew S. Gilbert. And there's plenty of slamming of car doors and squealing tyres, (even on dirt roads, a pet hate of mine.)

Haywood and Gilbert in factlook as if they are straight out of T.V.'s Homicide and the effect is fairly entertaining. There's a very funny story told mid tale, to do with a piece of bacon, and perhaps Kiss And Tell is worth seeing just for that, but should such a bloody procession across the heart of Australia even be accompanied by comedy?

Bill Bennett, the writer/director of Kiss Or Kill, has previously presented to us two unimpressive films, Spider And Rose, starring Ruth Cracknell, Simon Bossel and Max Cullen, and Two If By Sea, a confusing, poorly conceived film which was written by Denis Leary and starred Sandra Bullock and Denis Leary.

Kiss Or Kill again indicates a writer/director who seems to be short on ideas.

Or perhaps confused about genres. Kiss Or Kill would have been easier to handle if it had been treated like the mystery thriller it was meant to be.

Kiss Or Kill reminded me most of one of my favourite films, David Lynch's Wild At Heart, starring Laura Dern and Nicholas Cage, which also had a violent, in love couple on the run from the law, but importantly maintained its ferocity and sexiness throughout. Lynch didn't try to make Wild At Heart into a sort of comedy!

In addition, so called "quirkyness" is out of date now in Aussie Films. It always was. There's a fine line between creating interesting characters; the strange outcasts and loners who are common out in the bush, and on the other hand parading a succession of clowns on the screen.

Bill Bennett crosses that line often in Kiss And Kill. I've grown tired of Aussie films with things like min-min lights, parts of kangaroos, stupid outback scoundrels, scenery and countless Holden cars (or were they Fords) gratuitously whizzing around.

Dialogue also needs more depth than is presented in Kiss Or Kill. Dozens of "shut the f...k ups!!" make me writhe at the cinema. There was a lot about Kiss Or Kill that I found annoying.

I've been eagerly awaiting the next film from Frances O'Connor, who's effervescent performance in Love And Other Catastrophes indicated a new star on the Australian scene, but O'Connor, like her co-star Matt Day, look to be floundering in this film. But no doubt some of you will just love Kiss And Kill.

Barry Otto is interesting as one of the potential victims and Max Cullen plays a stupid, weird, outback motel owner with panache. And Kiss Or Kill does have a clever last scene, which presents one of the few worthwhile moments of the film; and the film's title.