Product Description

When a pair of life-long friends see their fast-lane lives heading nowhere, they take a detour... into an erotically charged, psychologically perilous adventure of the heart. After years of upward mobility, best friends Jeff (William Petersen) and Marty (Gary Cole) have achieved the American dream and ended up disillusioned and restless. They concoct an overseas business trip meant to exorcisetheir demons, but it soon escalates into a full-fledged escapeto a spectacularly remote tropicalisland where they both fall in love with the same free-spirited beauty (Sheryl Lee). Throwing caution to the wind, they make the fateful decision to shed their families back home and set out to create a sexual and spiritual utopia, observed and counseled by a wry Buddhist monk (Terence Stamp). But there's trouble in this sensual paradise... and it will ultimately test the bonds of friendship and the limits of love for each of them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65559 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-06-06
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 105 minutes

Amazon.com
In a classic instance of a film's reach exceeding its grasp, Kiss the Sky has the outline of greatness about it. The final result, though, is something less: a deeply flawed but genuinely interesting work. Nothing wrong with that.

More ambitious and less clichéd than American Beauty, Kiss the Sky stars William L. Petersen and Gary Cole as long-time friends evaluating how they arrived in middle age feeling dispirited and empty. Desperate to reconnect with their lost vitality, they pursue the obvious by zipping off to a tropical island to chase the local girls. Instead, they both end up falling for the same woman (Sheryl Lee), who in turn loves both of them. Opting for the unorthodox, the trio becomes a threesome with little internal jealousy, deep feelings shared all around, and an unspoken conviction that they have stumbled together into a sacred chapter in their lives.

If that scenario sounds merely provocative or mundane, the faith that screenwriter Eric Lerner demonstrates in his characters' quasi-religious certainty inspires a different reading. Not that Lerner and veteran television director Roger Young don't blow it on a few counts: the superfluous presence of Terence Stamp as a Zen monk, and a dead-end subplot about building a sanctuary for other soul pilgrims. But there's enough moral authenticity and adult experience between the lines to make this a compelling experience. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Believable
A movie like this stands on its own as a rare, once-in-a-while gamble. It's always surprising that such movies are made because they are not the typical Hollywood ilk; they take genuine risks and do not play to the least common denominator.

I was shocked to read some very negative reviews concerning this film. Yes, the film's tone and feeling are awkward and jumbled but I interpret this optimistically as an existential statement about these two mens' lives. It is as if--awoken from a decades' long, Los Angeles coma--they recall what it was to have been truly alive and full of hope for the future. They have fallen and they know it. From young adulthood in Northern California to a waning middle age in Southern California, they have made a journey downwards. To remedy the fall, they escape... by going far to the side, neither East nor West. Once there, they realize what has happened with their lives; in the words of Gary Cole's character: "That's what I thought, this is all just a mistake." Their interpretation of life as delusion and suffering feels true, though the stumbling attempt to address this realization leaves one reeling. The epiphany recalls Kafka's frightening story, In the Penal Colony. The comprehension of your `crime' always comes too late, but just in time for you to recognize its meaning and truly understand the horror of it all.

The characters are sympathetic but not necessarily likable. They are self-indulgent. Just as their forgetfulness of the important things led them into a life of quiet misery, so their practiced art allows them to forget the sacred duties that they have haplessly committed themselves to: marriage and parenthood.

In contrast to other reviewers, I found the characters well-cast. Terrence Stamp steals the show as an itinerant Dutch monk who shows an artful degree of compassion for his American friends. His insights are neither cliché nor pretentious but always pithy and well-timed.

The true highlight of this film is its haunting music. Rarely has a movie been so nicely accompanied. The Leonard Cohen lyrics are sung by a deep, lingering voice that seems to echo the tired spirits of these washed-up men.

Sometimes deep, sometimes boring but always easy to watch...
...is this movie about two yuppies Cole and Peterson searching for the sense of life. The story is quickly told: Jeff and Marty leave their families behind to go on a trip to a beautiful island where they fall in love with the same woman who is played by the amazingly sexy Sheryl Lee. Although "Kiss The Sky" goes on for too long it's never really hard to watch since there are beautiful locations and a nice supporting cast which includes Terence Stamp ("Bliss"), Patricia Charbonneau ("CallMe") and Season Hubley ("Hardcore"). The three leading actors are great, too - although I wasn't completely convinced by Peterson's performance (but maybe that's my fault since I just know him as a tough cop in "Manhunter" and "To Live and Die in L.A.").

Another positive aspect of "Kiss The Sky" is the nice soundtrack by Leonard Cohen (I especially like "Dance Me To The End Of Love").

Not everyone's taste, but if you like the actors you might also like "Kiss The Sky

That Movie that Oppressed Over 40 guys have been waiting for
I've been in the video biz for 20 years because I love movies--especially those amazing auteur classics Hollywood somehow let slide for so long in the 70s-- and I'm now 48, comfortable, guilty, confused, and feeling totally misunderstood, misjudged, and about to give up. Then I run across "Kiss the Sky", this incredible movie that actually tries to honestly describe the emptiness inherent in being a successful upper middle class (probably white) American Male. How many buddy movies have you seen like "City Slickers" or "Very Bad Things" that almost get that ineffable feeling of loss and despair right only to cop out with lowest common denominator humor or cheap sentiment? "Kiss the Sky", given the times and given the state of the movie industry is the closest we'll ever get. Deftly sidestepping cliches and easy answers, this tale of 2 middle aged guys who are smart enough to know that their material success doesn't mean that much and isn't really their doing anyway goes bravely if imperfectly where no movie that I have ever seen has gone before. ("Leaving Las Vegas" has some resonance but it's ultimately a one man story, not a generational statement.) I don't know where this movie came from or how it got made or who was nuts enough to think it had any commercial viability (it doesn't except if it's hawked as a hard R straight-to-video cheapie, and the person who wants that will be disappointed by this.) Anyway, if I'm speaking to you, watch this movie!