Just a Kiss

2002 Comedy Drama

They say the heart goes where it will, and six people find theirs following a very complicated road map with a seventh creating some unexpected detours in this dark romantic comedy. Dag (Ron Eldard) is a successful director of television commercials who shares his home with his beautiful girlfriend, Halley (Kyra Sedgwick). Dag, however, has a serious case of roving eye and is given to frequent flings with other women. Halley tries to turn a blind eye to Dag's infidelity, but when she discovers he had a one-night stand with Rebecca (Marley Shelton), a beautiful but troubled dancer who is dating Dag's close friend Peter (Patrick Breen), she decides things have gone too far. Halley gives Dag his walking papers and she soon makes the acquaintance of Andre (Taye Diggs), a very handsome and well-mannered classical musician. Andre, however, is married to Colleen (Sarita Choudhury), a woman with exotic sexual tastes who meets up with Peter, now suddenly without a girlfriend, on an airline flight. Meanwhile, Peter's very angry confrontation with Dag attracts the attention of Paula (Marisa Tomei), a mysterious but very sexy woman who has taken a decidedly carnal interest in Peter. However, as Paula makes her way through Peter's daisy-chained circle of friends, events begin taking a strange turn as her new acquaintances begin dropping like flies. Just a Kiss was the first feature film directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Fisher Stevens. more..

Director: Fisher Stevens

Starring: Ron Eldard, Kyra Sedgwick, Patrick Breen, Marisa Tomei, Marley Shelton

Reviews

  • Marisa Tomei turns in a blitzkrieg performance.

    Robert K. Elder - The Chicago Tribune

    26 April 2013

  • This small-scale film isn't for all tastes. But veterans of the dating wars will smirk uneasily at the film's nightmare versions of everyday sex-in-the-city misadventures.

    Maitland McDonagh - TV Guide

    26 April 2013

  • Stevens has a keen sense of the absurd, but the whole thing is too forced - and his use of "rotomation" (last used in Richard Linklater's "Waking Life") to give a Timothy Leary-swirl to key dramatic moments winds up looking incongruous.

    Megan Lehmann - New York Post

    26 April 2013

  • It's coherent, well shot, and tartly acted, but it wears you down like a dinner guest showing off his doctorate.

    Ty Burr - The Boston Globe

    26 April 2013

  • The movie seems to reinvent itself from moment to moment, darting between styles like a squirrel with too many nuts. There is one performance that works, sort of, and it is by Marisa Tomei,

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    26 April 2013

Awards

  • New Directors Competition

    Chicago International Film Festival (2002)

     
  • Fisher Stevens

    Festróia - Tróia International Film Festival (2002)

  • Fisher Stevens

    Gotham Awards (2002)