Film Reviews

In Search of a Midnight Kiss

• Rating:
• Director: Alex Holdridge.
• Starring: Scoot McNairy, Sara Simmonds, Brian McGuire, Kathleen Luong.
• Details: US / 90mins (15A).

The midnight kiss of the title is the perfect kiss, a kiss that can turn your life around, and it's a kiss that Wilson (McNairy) so desperately needs. An unemployed stoner writer, Wilson is in LA struggling to get over a break up with his girlfriend and is persuaded by his flatmate Jacob (McGuire, doing a foul-mouthed Judge Reinhold shtick) to go online and meet someone new. On New Year's Eve, Wilson lands a date with bitchy blonde Vivian (Simmonds), someone who doesn't think twice about saying what's on her mind ("F**k you and all men like you"), and the two stroll about the city awaiting the countdown to the New Year. With the B&W look of Clerks, Before Sunset's meandering dialogue, the loose approach of Breathless and a little bit of Swingers (you'll know it when you see it), In Search Of A Midnight Kiss triumphs over its budget constraints to become a simple but magical love story. Although a little obvious and shaky at the start as Wilson's loser persona grates, and Vivian's obnoxious behaviour is too unbelievable to get onside, writer-director Holdridge allows the audience to dislike the characters before slowly winning us over; the more we get to know them, the more they come to resemble people instead of movie characters (Holdridge could swing the camera and pick up two similar couples across the street and follow them about the city). It's a clever tactic and it works. It's not all smiles and sunshine, though. Some elements are introduced and then left unexplored: there's no reason why Wilson's mother, Twink Caplan, should be in this movie and Jacob and Kim's (Luong) relationship is underdeveloped but that's nitpicking. In Search Of A Midnight Kiss is for those who want to see a real love story.

Review by Gavin Burke