CINEMA: Kisses

Another small and rather delightful film is Lance Daly’s Kisses, a tale of two runaways who discover the streets of big cities aren’t always paved with gold.

Young Dylan (Shane Curry) and Kylie (Kelly O’Neill) live on a dilapidated estate on the outskirts of Dublin. He’s being abused by his drunken violent pa, while there’s something even darker happening in Kylie’s life. When Dylan’s dad threatens to kill his son, the youngsters decide to run to the heart of the city where they think they will be able to find Dylan’s older brother who also ran away a few years earlier.

So begins an almost enchanted journey marked by adventures and encounters with good people (the immigrant worker on a rubbish barge, a kind hearted prostitute and a singer who may or may not be Bob Dylan) and the more malevolent. During the course of one night Dylan and Kylie learn all about life, love, trust and the mysteries of kissing, emerging from the experience wiser and having been touched by magic.

Lance Daly’s story is sad and sweetly funny by turns and is absolutely made by its two central performances. Shane Curry and Kelly O’Neill may, at times, boast the broadest Irish accents it will ever be your displeasure to decipher, but they are charmingly natural and their young faces mirror every emotion they are feeling. Their friendship is innocent and joyous and as a modern day ‘fairytale’ this works on nearly every level. However bad the situation Dylan and Kylie find themselves in, the real message of the movie is all about hope and the triumph of true spirit over adversity.

Kisses says more in its short 72 minutes than Harry Potter manages to fit into almost twice that length and I know which I’d rather spend my money on going to see.

Dee Pilgrim