My Favourite Movies: Kiss the Girls

I’m fairly certain that I saw this 1997 film at the cinema before I watched (and re-watched) it on DVD. It has that cinematic feel in my mind every time I watch it – OK in a generally darkened room on a large widescreen TV but the point stands. I can’t quite remember if I read the book before or after though. I have a feeling it was after because I saw the second Alex Cross film (Along Came a Spider) after reading the book – which probably explains why that movie disappointed me.

But I digress and ramble, which is never a good combination.... Kiss the Girls is a detective thriller set mostly in North Carolina where a number of exceptional women have disappeared. When the niece of Alex Cross (played by the wonderful Morgan Freeman) is added to their number he high-tails it to the area to offer his assistance as one of the country’s top criminal psychologist’s. What he finds is a local police department completely out of its depth and reluctant to ask for help it doesn’t feel it needs. Things come to a head when young surgeon Dr Kate McTiernan (played by the gorgeous and talented Ashley Judd) is kidnapped and then manages to escape from the self-styled Casanova. Cross is convinced that only the Doctor can help him find and release his niece and the other women before the kidnapper (and sometimes killer) either leaves them to die or kills them himself. The investigation itself goes slowly and is thrown into confusion by revelations both close to home and across the continent in California. The question that Alex must answer in time is are these just distractions or are they vital to unravelling the case? Alex also needs to decide if he can save his niece without destroying his career in the process.

The first thing that hit me when I watched this recently was the cinematography which I thought was very good indeed – with sweeping panorama’s of the woods where some of the girls had been found and the use of slow motion to show emotional turmoil and exactly where the protagonists were focusing their attentions. Freeman was, as I expected, superb as Cross. I know there’s a new Alex Cross film out but Freeman isn’t in it and that, more than anything else, is stopping me giving it a screening. Whenever I read an Alex Cross novel I see Freeman no matter how the author describes him. For me Freeman is Cross. Understandably I love Ashley Judd. I think I’ve only seen her in 3 movies (not counting the cameo in Olympus Has Fallen) which are Heat, Kiss the Girls and Double Jeopardy. She essentially plays the same character in all three. Maybe she’s been type-cast or maybe that’s just how she acts or maybe that’s just her. Either way I can barely take my eyes off her. The rest of the cast deserve a mention too. Cary Elwes was suitably creepy as one of the local detectives and Brian Cox was suitably abrasive as his boss. Lastly I’ll mention Jay O Sanders who played the FBI lead who obviously had a history with and deep respect for Cross. They had a good chemistry on screen and I wouldn’t be very surprised if they were friends in real life.

Despite being an 18 certificate (at least over here and on my DVD) this isn’t a particularly gory or that shocking a film. There is a bit of blood, the theme of men preying on women is well handled without being prurient and the bad guys are shown to be morally bankrupt losers. There’s some swearing (the F word from time to time) but again nothing excessive, so I don’t think it deserves its elevated rating. But I’ll let you decide that. If you like Freeman, Judd or a very good detective thriller then this is definitely the movie for you. Just remember to lock your front door after you’ve watched it and make a point of not putting out your garbage the night before it’s going to be picked up!