Prelude to a Kiss (1992)

Next up in recommendations is from Paul S at Pfeiffer Pfilms and Meg Movies. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who has openly admitted to loving Michelle Pfeiffer and Meg Ryan at the same time, other than myself.  Paul is one of those people and he does it in the form of that amazing blog that I linked up there.  I had wanted to review this one for the Valentine’s marathon but didn’t get a chance.  Last year, I had wanted to do a Meg Ryan marathon but apparently compiling ALL of Meg Ryan movies was costly and close to impossible so before I knew it, I gave up and decided I’d find a reason to review the ones I had during this year… Long story short, this leads up to this review of Prelude to a Kiss.  I gave Paul a choice between this and Sleepless in Seattle and he chose this one 🙂

Director: Norman Rene

Cast: Alec Baldwin, Meg Ryan, Stanley Tucci, Sydney Walker, Kathy Bates

Peter (Alec Baldwin) meets Rita (Meg Ryan) at a party.  They are the opposite in personality; one who is optimistic and the other completely afraid of the world.  After a few weeks, their relationship develops into more and they decide to get married.  On the day of their marriage, an old man (Sydney Walker) appears and asks to kiss the bride. The kiss ends up changing Rita and when they head off to the honeymoon, Peter starts seeing Rita’s personality change into someone else.  At first, he thinks that it’s just getting married but when they get back home, he starts noticing that maybe something else a bit more unusual has happened.

Prelude to a Kiss is a likable romantic comedy.  I found the characters started a bit strange to begin with, even before the unusual happened with Rita.  I don’t really think it was the story itself that was very original because it was pretty obvious what had happened, however the cast did a great job in making a predictable story a cute and even touching watch.

Out of all the characters I’ve seen Meg Ryan act out, this is one of the cutest ones.  There’s something strange and awkward about how she interacts with the world from the beginning and a lot of it made me laugh.  Plus, halfway through this awkward character had to make a personality change and she was playing another character again.  The way Meg Ryan portrayed Rita had to be the highlight of this flick.

I’m not such a huge fan of Alec Baldwin.  Apparently in the 90s, he was a pretty good looking man.  Well, now I know.  Alec plays Peter who falls in love with this woman who is afraid of world but still, he loves her for who she is.  His character brought alive a lot of the touching moments of desperately trying to find back the woman that he knew and married and no who she has become and especially why she has changed. Helpless and loss; thats what Peter had to deal with or was up against and Alec Baldwin did a fantastic job in showing all that.  There is no doubt that Alec Baldwin is a good actor and I may not have a seen a whole lot of movies with him in it but this is his best role 🙂

 I’m not sure how much is too much in revealing this story so I’m just going to say less.  If you’ve seen this one, you know what happens but if you haven’t, at least you still have a bit of guessing to do in what actually happens. The Old Man carries the wisdom in this one about true love and about facing sudden changes.  Prelude to a Kiss is overloaded with talent.  There’s a young Stanley Tucci who has the chance to smile a few and crack a few jokes and we have the wildly talented Kathy Bates who plays the Old Man’s daughter and tries to work out how to live with him as he ages.

Prelude of a Kiss may not be my favorite love story because it actually feels a bit predictable.  I don’t really mind it so much, especially when the cast impressed me a lot.  They took each of their roles and touched me in a different way.  The characters themselves are much more memorable than the story.  It carries a deeper meaning of what true love actually is. How can you not appreciate a story like that?

Have you seen Prelude of a Kiss? What do you think of the performances? Do you like Alec Baldwin and what movie of his is your favorite?

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