The Serpent's Kiss (1997)

a work of art
I saw this movie on late night tv recently for the first time. The poetry in the opening immediately grabbed me. Then enters Meneer Chrome, ooohh, so incredibly handsome. I know I got to have the DVD. I never had a movie library, just a few dance DVDs. This is the first movie ever I'm compelled to buy. On the surface, it's chick flick at its finest, thanks to the racy good looks of Ewan McGregor and his brilliant acting. It's a sexy little movie sans sex scenes.

Next I found myself watching it twice in 2 days. It feels like I'm viewing a painting...and you want to see it again. Variety magazine pointed out in their review that the literary aspect of the movie is partly to blame for the lack of mass distribution. Perhaps there should've been a few pony chase scenes, but I much prefer idyllic images and old fashioned flirtations and a world of sensual symbolisms...

The reviews here from other viewers offer superb analysis of the literary elements found throughout the movie. In a nutshell, the movie is built on opposites: the bitter tension, or coming together to form something bigger. Like Meneer and Thea, a marriage made in heaven...

The word "heaven" came out unintentionally but just as well -- I can't help but think of Garden of Eden...the snake...the "forbidden fruit" Fitzmaurice cautioned Meneer to stay away from ... Am I reading too much into it? Probably...

Meneer's character evolves over the course of the movie -- from the worldly architect with a hidden agenda, to Juliana's boy-toy in her fantasy as well as "parlor games", to who he really is under the disguise -- an innocent little boy, eyes closed, lying on the beach while Thea strokes his hair...

What seems to be lacking is Meneer's feeling for Thea. He cares about her, but the movie didn't show he's secretly in love with her. Despite that, I find the movie very engaging and I definitely recommend it.

(Some viewers might be concerned about Thomas and Juliana left with nothing but each other. No worries, the evil cousin can't take the gold coins with him, so the fortune (minus the portion now with the young lovers) will remain in Smithers' estate. They should do okay.)

Richard and Ewan... star power shows sometimes it isn't enough

The kiss of the serpent is rather a confusing film. Plots, people and ideas come and go such as Tara being a witch or not, the whole deal with the poisen, and even the background on Chrome seemed to me to be rather hazy and obscure. I love Ewan Mcgregor, but even he couldn't completely save this film. He lacked the enthusiasm that you see in such films like Down with Love or Big Fish.And Richard E. Grant, while being a very convincing villian, doesn't quite make us either fear or hate him as we are tend to be rather lukewarm towards him anyhow, so the evil character Fitzmaurice falls upon dead ears and becomes less then he should have been. I'm afraid the romance plot could have been better, but again, I've seen better. The whole desire/passion/obsession thing didn't quite work out and in turn makes the movie rather mundane. I think the only thing that made me interested was seeing how the garden turned out. Ewan showed more Passion towards his vegitation then Tara, and he only got properly excited when talking about his gardens.

However don't get me wrong, this isn't a completely wasted movie, and the five or so dollars I spent on it wasn't too much of a loss. But if you are on a budget, or rather unsure of this movie I'd suggest renting it from a friend, or waiting until your finances to improve. Then you might not regret the movie so much.

looks promising but is disappointing
I love period movies and Ewan McGregor, so I thought this would be a win-win situation. Thankfully I found this in the cheap-movie-bin at Wal-Mart for $5.50, so I didn't waste a lot of money on it. The acting is superb, the costumes are excellent, and I thought the sets were decent enough to not be too distracting. But the screenplay is ridiculous. The movie limps along meandering aimlessly in the first half without giving any real intro or background into the characters, and the second half seems to rush tying up all the loose ends. Fitzmaurice seemed to appear out of nowhere, or else I was just so bored that I completely missed that part. I think with any other director, this could have been a really enjoyable movie. I think my main beef with it is that there was not enough character development to keep my interest. I wouldn't even recommend this for rental, unless you are a film student who wants to study How Not To Ruin A Perfectly Good Movie!! I agree with the reviewer above, I don't even want to keep my copy and am going to donate it to the library.