Kiss the Girls (1997 film)

Kiss the Girls is a 1997 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Gary Fleder and starring Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, and Cary Elwes. The screenplay by David Klass is based on James Patterson's best-selling 1995 novel of the same name. A sequel titled Along Came a Spider was released in 2001.

Plot
Dr. Alex Cross, a forensic psychologist and detective from Washington D.C., is devastated to learn that his niece, Naomi, a college student in Durham, North Carolina, has been missing for four days. Despite his family’s anxiety, Cross travels to Durham to investigate, determined to find her.

Upon arrival, Cross meets with local police and learns that multiple young women, including Naomi, are missing. He collaborates with Detectives Nick Ruskin and Davey Sikes. Together, they visit a crime scene in the woods where the body of one of the missing women has been found, brutally murdered and tied to a tree, heightening Cross’s fears for Naomi's safety.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kate McTiernan, a doctor and kickboxer, is abducted from her home by a masked man who calls himself Casanova. She wakes up in a stone-walled room, heavily sedated, and is told by Casanova that he admires her talents and promises she won't suffer if she complies with his rules. Kate, however, is determined to escape. She discovers other women are held captive with her.

Kate eventually manages to overpower Casanova during one of his visits and escapes into the woods, jumping off a cliff into a river to ensure her freedom. She is found and taken to a hospital, where she recovers and agrees to help Cross in his investigation. She provides vital information about her captivity and describes Casanova.

Cross investigates further and discovers that a local plastic surgeon, Dr. Will Rudolph, had ordered a large quantity of Sistol, a drug used to sedate the captives. Cross and Sampson, his partner, begin surveilling Rudolph.

The investigation intensifies when they follow Rudolph to a nightclub. Kate, who recognizes Rudolph’s touch, confirms he is Casanova. A chase ensues, during which Rudolph escapes after killing one of Sampson’s men and injuring Cross.

The police uncover a second killer, the Gentleman Caller, who is also involved in the abductions. With the help of Naomi’s boyfriend, familiar with the area, Cross and his team locate the hideout where the women are kept.

In a climactic confrontation, Cross and the police rescue the captives, but Casanova escapes. Later, at a dinner invitation from Kate, Cross recognizes a similarity between Casanova’s handwriting and Detective Ruskin’s signature. Realizing Ruskin is Casanova, Cross rushes to save Kate.

Ruskin, revealed as Casanova, attempts to kill Kate. She fights back, and Cross arrives just in time to intervene. In the final struggle, Cross shoots Ruskin, preventing him from causing an explosion in Kate’s house. Casanova is finally dead, and Cross and Kate embrace as the police arrive.

Cast

 * Morgan Freeman as Detective Alex Cross
 * Ashley Judd as Dr. Kate McTiernan
 * Cary Elwes as Detective Nick Ruskin
 * Alex McArthur as Detective Davey Sikes
 * Bill Nunn as Detective John Sampson
 * Jeremy Piven as Detective Henry Castillo
 * Brian Cox as Chief Hatfield
 * Jay O. Sanders as Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent Kyle Craig
 * Tony Goldwyn as Dr. William Rudolph
 * William Converse-Roberts as Dr. Wick Sachs
 * Roma Maffia as Dr. Ruocco
 * Richard T. Jones as Seth Samuel
 * Gina Ravera as Naomi Cross
 * Heidi Schanz as Megan Murphy
 * Tatyana Ali as Janelle Cross
 * Mena Suvari as Coty Pierce
 * Anna Maria Horsford as Vickie Cross
 * Helen Martin as Nana Maybellene Cross

Filming
Principal photography began on April 16, 1996. The film was shot two weeks on location in North Carolina on the streets of Durham, in nearby county parks, and outside a Chapel Hill, North Carolina residence. The police station was constructed in a downtown Durham warehouse. The majority of filming occurred in the Los Angeles area, with locations including the Disney Ranch, The Athenaeum at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, a house in the Adams historic district of Los Angeles, and on the campus of the University of Southern California in University Park. Designed by American production designer Nelson Coates, the majority of the sets, including the tunnels and underground chambers, were constructed in sound stages on the Paramount Studios lot. Filming was completed on July 10.

Release
The film premiered at the Deauville Film Festival in September 1997 before opening on 2,271 screens in the US the following month. It earned $13,215,167 in its opening weekend and a total of $60,527,873 in the US, ranking #28 in domestic revenue for the year.

The film was not shown in some theaters in central Virginia at the time of release, due to the unsolved murders of three teenage girls in the area. This decision was out of respect for the families and surrounding communities. The murders were eventually solved and attributed to Richard Evonitz.

Critical reception
The film received negative reviews and has a "Rotten" rating of 34% on Rotten Tomatoes from 35 reviews with the consensus: "Detective Alex Cross makes his inauspicious cinematic debut in Kiss the Girls, a clunky thriller that offers few surprises".

Stephen Holden of The New York Times said the film "is cut from the same cloth as The Silence of the Lambs, but the piece of material it uses has the uneven shape and dangling threads of a discarded remnant.... [It] begins promisingly, then loses its direction as the demand for accelerated action overtakes narrative logic". Holden writes of Morgan Freeman that he "projects a kindness, patience and canny intelligence that cut against the movie's fast pace and pumped-up shock effects. His performance is so measured it makes you want to believe in the movie much more than its gimmicky jerry-rigged [sic] plot ever permits".

In the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half out of four stars and said, "David Klass, the screenwriter, gives Freeman and Judd more specific dialogue than is usual in thrillers; they sound as if they might actually be talking with each other and not simply advancing plot points.... [They] are so good, you almost wish they'd decided not to make a thriller at all - had simply found a way to construct a drama exploring their personalities".

Rita Kempley of The Washington Post called the film "a tense, scary, perversely creepy thriller" and added that "David Klass ... blessedly deletes the graphic descriptions of torture and rape included in the novel. Unfortunately, he also neglects to include any explanation of Casanova's behavior. Otherwise Kiss the Girls does what it's supposed to do. A solid second film from director Gary Fleder, it's sure to set pulses racing and spines tingling". In the same newspaper, Desson Thomson felt that "the movie ... operates on the crime-movie equivalent of automatic pilot. It takes off, flies and lands without much creative intervention".

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Stack thought "the story ... goes on too long. It has too many confusing plot twists and keeps losing energy. Blame it on Hollywood excess, or director Gary Fleder's uncertain hand. A cut of 15 minutes would have helped". He was more impressed by the film's stars, calling Morgan Freeman "compelling" and "a hero of extraordinary power that comes almost entirely from his unemotional, calculating calm", and stating that Ashley Judd "gives the sometimes plodding drama a dose of intense vitality. This young actress is getting awfully good at turning potentially gelatinous characters into substantive people who spark viewer interest".

Awards and nominations
Judd was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Drama at the 1998 Satellite Awards.

Sequel and reboot
Four years after Kiss the Girls, a film adaptation of Along Came a Spider was released. Morgan Freeman reprised his role. Later, the franchise was rebooted with a 2012 adaptation of the novel Cross, titled Alex Cross, starring Tyler Perry in the title role.