Prelude to a Kiss is a 1992 film starring Meg Ryan, Alec Baldwin and Sydney Walker.

PLOT OUTLINE

On Peter Hoskins and Rita Boyle’s wedding day Rita is kissed by Julius, a lonely old man, who asks Peter if he can kiss the bride. Once he kisses her, their souls are swapped and Rita is now trapped in Julius’ body which is aging and dying. Peter goes off on honeymoon with his bride and soon starts to be suspicious about her apparent change of personality and zest for life which the woman he fell in love with didn’t seem to have. Will Peter find out the truth about “Rita”? Will Julius’ and Rita’s souls ever swap around? Is this just another “Freaky Friday” type film?

ANALYSIS

First off I have to tell you that I really enjoyed this film and have seen it several times; shortly after it was first released and several times in more recent years. It received a lot of slating at the time of its release and afterwards with the New York Times saying “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.” Personally I thought this scathing review was way off the mark and although I have always liked both Meg Ryan and Alec Baldwin as performers, it was not just my bias towards them that made me enjoy the film.

I had never seen Sydney Walker in any films that I recall prior to his role in Prelude to a Kiss but he apparently was in the 1970 hit Love Story, A Christmas Carol in 1981 and various other films. He was mostly a stage actor and his role as Julius in this film, for me, was truly inspired. He was 71 at the time of filming and for the better part of the film he plays a woman in her 20s which is no mean feat. I found him adorable in the role. It’s definitely easier to play someone older than your actually age but to play someone over 40 years younger was a challenge that Walker carried off with confidence without making it farcical.

Meg Ryan plays the role of Rita credibly; you get a chance in the first part of the film to get to know her character well enough to see the difference when the soul swap takes place. This is not surprising as we’re used to seeing Ryan in these roles – romantic, sometimes ditzy but mostly loveable. Rita is a pretty young woman with some of these characteristics but only somewhat bitter about certain aspects of life, she is scared of living and doesn’t want kids, so on the surface it doesn’t seem as if she has too much in common with the man she falls in love with. When Julius’ soul takes her over we see an optimist who wants to make the most of life and suddenly wants to have children and looks forward to each new experience and even cherishes it. This is very confusing for her new husband obviously and although he wants children he can’t understand his bride’s sudden change of heart and pretty much whole change of persona. Alec Baldwin was just perfect for me in this role. He adores his wife and marries her even knowing she doesn’t want kids and thinks the whole will end horribly and is pretty perturbed about her sudden turnaround about such important aspects of their lives. He plays the role so superbly for me. A scene where he gets an idea of what’s going on was so touching that I felt rather tearful but I don’t want to give away any more of the story. He was so convincing – this is when you think “This guy can act!” But really, I felt the same way about Ryan and Walker too, so it was an all round team effort on the part of all 3 leads. You really believe they are those people no matter how incredible the plotline might be, in those touching moments between the leads in several parts of the film you really think it’s all real. Well I did anyway!

If there’s a moral to the story, I guess one could say it teaches you to appreciate what you have whilst you still have time. How many of us whine all day about the smaller things in life and don’t appreciate how much time we have to enjoy life and fix those little things that we make such a fuss about? We all do it. Ask someone who has been told they just have months to live how much they more time they would like to live to enjoy things. I’m not getting preachy here, I’m just reflecting on how the film made me feel at the end of it.

OVERALL

I haven't seen the play nor do I wish to. The film is a different entity to the stage play as far as I'm concerned. Of late I'm trying to get a different level of enjoyment from reading a book and watching a film version or knowing a play and seeing the film version. I enjoyed the film enough that I would watch it again. If you enjoy films of the romantic/slightly fantasy genre, I would hope you would enjoy this film.

A decent 4 out of 5 stars from me for this sweet film. Try to remember the story is a rather fantastical so you’ll need to suspend your disbelief at what takes place when the souls switch between healthy beautiful young woman and aging diseased and dying man but let yourself enjoy the ride.

TECHNICAL STUFF

Film release date: July 1992
Director: Norman Rene
Co-stars: Kathy Bates, Ned Beatty, Patty Duke
Run time: 110 minutes
Classification: PG-13