Kiss the Sky

Kiss the Sky
by Roger Young

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Movie Reviews of Kiss the Sky

Movie Review: Believable
Summary: 5 Stars

I was shocked to read some very negative reviews concerning this film. Yes, the film's tone and feeling are awkward and jumbled but I interpret this optimistically as an existential statement about these two mens' lives. It is as if--awoken from a decades' long, Los Angeles coma--they recall what it was to have been truly alive and full of hope for the future. They have fallen and they know it. From young adulthood in Northern California to a waning middle age in Southern California, they have made a journey downwards. To remedy the fall, they escape... by going far to the side, neither East nor West. Once there, they realize what has happened with their lives; in the words of Gary Cole's character: "That's what I thought, this is all just a mistake." Their interpretation of life as delusion and suffering feels true, though the stumbling attempt to address this realization leaves one reeling. The epiphany recalls Kafka's frightening story, In the Penal Colony. The comprehension of your `crime' always comes too late, but just in time for you to recognize its meaning and truly understand the horror of it all.

The characters are sympathetic but not necessarily likable. They are self-indulgent. Just as their forgetfulness of the important things led them into a life of quiet misery, so their practiced art allows them to forget the sacred duties that they have haplessly committed themselves to: marriage and parenthood.

In contrast to other reviewers, I found the characters well-cast. Terrence Stamp steals the show as an itinerant Dutch monk who shows an artful degree of compassion for his American friends. His insights are neither cliché nor pretentious but always pithy and well-timed.

The true highlight of this film is its haunting music. Rarely has a movie been so nicely accompanied. The Leonard Cohen lyrics are sung by a deep, lingering voice that seems to echo the tired spirits of these washed-up men.

Summary of Kiss the Sky

More ambitious and less clichéd than American Beauty, Kiss the Sky stars William L. Petersen and Gary Cole as long-time friends evaluating how they arrived in middle age feeling dispirited and empty. Desperate to reconnect with their lost vitality, they pursue the obvious by zipping off to a tropical island to chase the local girls. Instead, they both end up falling for the same woman (Sheryl Lee), who in turn loves both of them. Opting for the unorthodox, the trio becomes a threesome with little internal jealousy, deep feelings shared all around, and an unspoken conviction that they have stumbled together into a sacred chapter in their lives.

If that scenario sounds merely provocative or mundane, the faith that screenwriter Eric Lerner demonstrates in his characters' quasi-religious certainty inspires a different reading. Not that Lerner and veteran television director Roger Young don't blow it on a few counts: the superfluous presence of Terence Stamp as a Zen monk, and a dead-end subplot about building a sanctuary for other soul pilgrims. But there's enough moral authenticity and adult experience between the lines to make this a compelling experience. --Tom Keogh