A Kiss Before Dying neo-noir film that was a remake of the 1956 film of the same title.It stars Matt Dillon,Sean Young,Diane Ladd and Max von Sydow.The film was written and directed by James Dearden,who based it on the novel of the same name by Ira Levin.The story focuses on Jonathan Corliss,who is a poor college student with aspirations of wealth. Since childhood he has been obsessed with the fortunes of a company called Carlsson Copper. While a student at the University of Pennsylvania, he plans to ingratiate himself with the wealthy family of magnate Thor Carlsson and has begun secretly dating Carlsson's daughter Dorothy. When Dorothy learns that she's pregnant, she informs Jonathan that she'll be cut off without her inheritance when her father learns the truth. Jonathan decides to murder her, and makes it look like a suicide; then he moves to New York. There, he makes the acquaintance of Ellen Carlsson,the late Dorothy's twin sister, and begins courting her.This time he is more successful, winning Ellen's hand in marriage and a powerful position in his new father-in-law's company. However, Ellen has long been suspicious of the circumstances surrounding her twin's death, and she probes deeper into the supposed suicide. She uncovers alarming facts about some other murders and the identity of her sister's unknown lover.Although the performances of Dillon,Ladd and von Sydow should be given merit,the same could not be said of Young in her dual role as Dorothy and Ellen.Aside from that,the movie lacks suspense all throughout as the filmmakers weren't able to transfer the tension-filled story on screen.In the end,the 1991 remake fails to live up to the greatness of the 1956 movie.

This is a remake of a 1956 movie and I can't imagine any remake has more closely resembled a reanimated corpse than this version of A Kiss Before Dying. This lifeless husk just sort of shambles along, letting out the occasional groan, before finally being put out of its misery.The film starts with Jonathan Corliss (Matt Dillon) throwing his girlfriend Dorothy Carlsson (Sean Young) off the roof of Philadelphia's city hall. The splat Dorothy make on the marble floor where she lands is one of only three good things in this movie. The police believe Dorothy's death is a suicide, something her super rich father (Max von Sydow) is happy to go along with. Her twin sister Ellen (Sean Young, duh!) doesn't buy it though and tries to investigate on her own. Months and months go buy and to cover his tracks, Jonathan eventually kills an old boyfriend of Dorothy and frames him for her murder. That's when we discover that Jonathan has actually become Ellen's new boyfriend as part of a scheme to get a job with Ellen and Dorothy's super rich daddy. If you're wondering if Ellen ever discovers Jonathan's scheme and realizes he killed her sister…you're probably just dim enough to like A Kiss Before Dying.The crucial and glaring problem with this movie is that none of the characters have any human depth to them at all. They're nothing but nails that get pounded down by the Almighty Plot Hammer. Jonathan Corliss has absolutely no internal life. He might as well be a ticking clock or some other mechanism. Dorothy/Ellen are almost as bad, though Sean Young going topless as Ellen does grant that character a smidgen of prurient appeal. And let me be clear. Young and Matt Dillon are not at fault here. It's not that they're giving flat, uninspired performances. These actors are just trapped inside roles that make them nothing more than props. There's never a moment when either Ellen or Jonathan are real people doing real things. They're only puppets being obviously manipulated in whatever way the plot needs them to go.That plot is a less glaring but still significant problem. Maybe the idea of a guy weaving a multi-year scheme where he kills several people so he can become a rich man's personal assistant made sense in 1956, but I don't think it passes muster in 1991 and it's even dumber today. I sat through this film waiting to find out what was Jonathan's goal. Why was he doing all of this? It wasn't until about a half hour after he got the job with Ellen's dad that I realized, that was his only goal. He wasn't going to kill Ellen, he wasn't going to kill her dad, he wasn't going to try and take over or destroy her dad's company. He just wanted a job above middle management. But considering how many years he spent sociopathically devoted to his scheme, Jonathan might have been able to accomplish the same thing if he had just applied for a job in the mailroom.Oh, and the whole reason he had to kill Dorothy and start his plan over with Ellen REALLY doesn't fly in 1991. When your story turns on something that might have been shocking in 1956 but is fairly blase in 1991, you've got to change that plot point in some way to match modern sensibilities. Writer/director James Dearden tries to skip over that incongruity with a single line of dialog at the end, but it doesn't work.I did say there were two other good things in this film. One is the aforementioned topless Sean Young. The other is the very Hitchcockian shot when Ellen finally realizes the truth about Jonathan. Unfortunately, two great camera shots and Sean Young's boobs, as nice as they are, can't carry an entire film by themselves.A Kiss Before Dying has something of a reputation for being infamously bad. It doesn't live down to that expectation. There's no gross storytelling or performing incompetence on display here. There just isn't a spark or glimmer of living, breathing humanity anywhere in this film.

A Kiss Before Dying is a remake, telling the story of a driven successful executive who murders a wealthy young girl, and than plots to marry and than murder her twin sister so that he can inherit a fortune from her father's huge cooperation.Matt Dillon does a wonderful job as as the sinister youthful executive, who uses good looks, charm, and incredible manipulation to lure unsuspecting victims into his next con game. Dillon gives all the right moods and tone settings to his character. Matt makes the movie. The problem is the acting by the other characters, even the very talented Max Von Sydow is wasted and superficial. Sean Young, who plays the roles of both twin daughters doesn't bring enough suspense or energy to the part. Her vulnerabilities and weaknesses are demonstrated early on, making her even easier pray for Dillan's character.However, the movie isn't as bad as some of the other reviewers have mentioned. It's a good little mystery flick to watch once or twice when it comes on just to see Matt Dillan's excellent performance. However, the lack of energy or suspense from the other characters indicates that they would rather be somewhere else than in this picture.A Kiss Before Dying is a pretty good movie, but nowhere near what it could have been.

The large part of the fun of watching A Kiss Before Dying is looking out for the number of Hitchcock movie moments the film is paying tribute to: from Psycho's shower shots and the lonesome mother's house our Norman Bates has escaped from, to the bleaching of the heroine and taking the Kim Novak role a la Vertigo with possibly lethal consequences. I was hugely amused and never mind the creaking plot. On a technical level, I loved the Technicolor hue of the film, very Hitchcock period too. I'm not sure why the lead actress, Sean Young, got a double Razzie award for her dual role. It seems undeserved. I'm sure there must have been far worse performances in 1991 to choose from.