One of the surprises of "Kiss the Sky" is how it stays in the memory.
Two men deep in midlife crisis leave their families behind and go for a holiday in the Philippines. After a drug and sex-fueled stopover in Manila, they continue on to a remote resort where they meet an Australian girl, becoming involved in a Ménage à trios – although threesome would be a more accurate description. In their search to recapture the experiences of their youth and find true meaning to their lives they abandon home, family and responsibility.
William Peterson and Gary Cole play the two friends, Jeff and Marty. It is fascinating to see William Peterson in movies before he became Gil in "CSI". "Manhunter" comes to mind along with "To Live and Die in LA". His low-key approach allowed him to meld with those roles very effectively, and so he does here.
Sheryl Lee plays Andy, the girl from the Australian countryside who is also travelling in a search for self. Sheryl Lee is brilliant. She does an almost perfect Aussie accent – nearly as good as Amy Walker's of "YouTube" fame. Apart from mastering the accent, she projects a sense of worldliness and vulnerability.
Jeff and Marty encounter a funky Buddhist monk played by Terence Stamp who gives the guys almost the perfect excuse for what they are doing when he relates how Buddha, before he became 'The Buddha', abandoned his family and life as a prince to pursue his vision.
Although things go fine for a while, the three-way setup starts to unravel. Jeff and Marty discover that there is no escape from the things that trouble them. Jeff's conscience cuts in and he realises the pain he has brought to his family. He returns to them but the ending leaves us wondering.
Skirts, shirts, undies and sarongs hit the bedroom floor fairly regularly in "Kiss the Sky"; the movie contains a lot of nudity. Although it is fairly tastefully executed, it could help explain why the film is not more widely known. I think audiences are still uncomfortable with this much bare skin whether in a movie theatre or in a lounge chair at home. In one list of the 200 highest-grossing movies of all-time – most made since the end of the "Hollywood Motion Picture Production Code" in 1968 – there are perhaps three that have any nudity in them at all. Maybe profit is not a perfect measure of the artistic merit of a movie but I think it helps illustrate the point.
Despite a fair amount of pop psychology and philosophy, it all sounds quite profound in the context of this film. However, "Kiss the Sky" also manages to pose some challenging questions.
The soundtrack features songs by Leonard Cohen that connect so perfectly with the spirit of this movie that you'd be forgiven for thinking they were written especially for it. "Kiss the Sky" works well on so many levels; it is well worth the effort of seeking it out.
Two men deep in midlife crisis leave their families behind and go for a holiday in the Philippines. After a drug and sex-fueled stopover in Manila, they continue on to a remote resort where they meet an Australian girl, becoming involved in a Ménage à trios – although threesome would be a more accurate description. In their search to recapture the experiences of their youth and find true meaning to their lives they abandon home, family and responsibility.
William Peterson and Gary Cole play the two friends, Jeff and Marty. It is fascinating to see William Peterson in movies before he became Gil in "CSI". "Manhunter" comes to mind along with "To Live and Die in LA". His low-key approach allowed him to meld with those roles very effectively, and so he does here.
Sheryl Lee plays Andy, the girl from the Australian countryside who is also travelling in a search for self. Sheryl Lee is brilliant. She does an almost perfect Aussie accent – nearly as good as Amy Walker's of "YouTube" fame. Apart from mastering the accent, she projects a sense of worldliness and vulnerability.
Jeff and Marty encounter a funky Buddhist monk played by Terence Stamp who gives the guys almost the perfect excuse for what they are doing when he relates how Buddha, before he became 'The Buddha', abandoned his family and life as a prince to pursue his vision.
Although things go fine for a while, the three-way setup starts to unravel. Jeff and Marty discover that there is no escape from the things that trouble them. Jeff's conscience cuts in and he realises the pain he has brought to his family. He returns to them but the ending leaves us wondering.
Skirts, shirts, undies and sarongs hit the bedroom floor fairly regularly in "Kiss the Sky"; the movie contains a lot of nudity. Although it is fairly tastefully executed, it could help explain why the film is not more widely known. I think audiences are still uncomfortable with this much bare skin whether in a movie theatre or in a lounge chair at home. In one list of the 200 highest-grossing movies of all-time – most made since the end of the "Hollywood Motion Picture Production Code" in 1968 – there are perhaps three that have any nudity in them at all. Maybe profit is not a perfect measure of the artistic merit of a movie but I think it helps illustrate the point.
Despite a fair amount of pop psychology and philosophy, it all sounds quite profound in the context of this film. However, "Kiss the Sky" also manages to pose some challenging questions.
The soundtrack features songs by Leonard Cohen that connect so perfectly with the spirit of this movie that you'd be forgiven for thinking they were written especially for it. "Kiss the Sky" works well on so many levels; it is well worth the effort of seeking it out.