moonspinner55 Review of Prelude to a Kiss

Prelude to a Kiss (1992)

Unconventional, perhaps...but still rigidly part of an unconventional formula

[3/10 · 3 May 2008]

Craig Lucas adapted his own hit play about a nervous newlywed (Meg Ryan) inadvertently exchanging souls just after the wedding ceremony with a lonely, elderly man via a magical smooch. Lucas works hard trying to keep his script free from the often-tread "body switching movie" genre, but he has nothing else to fall back on. Bridegroom Alec Baldwin (who also played this part on stage) fidgets about trying to do something other than look confused, and Meg Ryan (after the switch) is stuck doing even less. The old-fashioned handling by director Norman René is too-cute--and though Baldwin and Ryan are a nice screen match, this premise never allows that union to become important to us. *1/2 from ****