Review of In Search of a Midnight Kiss (2007) by Matthew R — 22 Jan 2009

Eh, it was passable. There was a very "student film" vibe from it, clearly 'inspired' by the likes of manhattan and before sunrise it attempts to mesh all these ideas and put a 21st spin on it. But it doesn't really work. With its "struggling writer" main character (ugh) who was depressed and upset from previous relationships he is brought out of this by Vivian, a near typical manic pixie dream girl (ugh). The ending left a bad taste in my mouth, male character is given new hope and inspiration and quickly moves on whilst the girl is left with a life altering problem and a grim out look as her hopes and dreams are most likely never to come true?

I thought the choice of B&W might have just been a pretentious move but after seeing a lot of the shots of the city they did I understand why, the city looks gorgeous, and if you've ever been to LA you know how difficult that is to pull off. B&W seems to hide the ugliness and really show off the cities architecture. Some of the writing is good and it's commendable that they want to give us a picture of 21st century relationships. But it comes off as a rather horrible mixture of self centred writer/director project using the film to voice his own "boo hoo" relationships and fantasies of a beautiful girl saving him, and a conscious effort to make a film that will be held up as defining 21st century relationships and love.