If there's one movie I know far too well, it's French Kiss. It made its stars, Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline, two of my all-time favourite actors, and rightfully so; in my opinion, neither have been more in their element than in their roles in this film. Ryan plays the typical All-American, endearingly cute, wide-eyed girl, stuck in a foreign European land and just getting by with her wit and pluck. Kline is different in this film — more so than in his others — due to the fact that he plays a gruff French thief with the typical "greased up" look. For one, he hardly looks that greasy in other films, and that French accent he sports is so convincing you almost forget he's the same guy who was the likable, hapless dogooder in Dave. (That Oscar he won for A Fish Called Wanda clearly wasn't a fluke, I'd say.)
When I say I know this movie well, I mean it — I've watched it close to 40 times since it came out in 1995. Come to think of it, it's almost been 10 years, huh. Wow. Didn't realise it till now. Ryan, at this point in her career, had fully cemented herself in her romantic comedienne role, her cute, People's Princess sort of image. This was after Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally, don't forget. But it shows a little more of her, I think, than in the aforementioned. For one, she isn't just the supporting actor, or a boring character in a lead role. She carries this film effortlessly, and shows far more character depth than in, say, Sleepless. (Though I do have to say that this might be more credit to the writers, than her, really.)
Talking to people, and reading what people have had to say about this movie, it really got me thinking. The main complaints were that it was predictable, and that you had to be a fan of "this genre" to like it. Which is to say that people were having problems with the simple premise that it had a happy ending, that we knew Ryan would end up with Kline. Well, well. Doesn't the poster make that clear, even before you watch it?
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