Judas Kiss

First aired on cable in Europe, aired in the USA April-May 1999

Overall rating = 1 hand

Rickmaniac rating = 3 hands

Synopsis: A kidnapping leads to a murder, or does it?

OK, I admit it: I’m bored of sex. At least bored of sex in films. And I’m also bored of films where the body count increases in a logarithmic progression. Add to that the fact that, while I’m nursing a torn ligament on my right foot, Mr. Rickman’s character ends up with a broken foot, and you can probably understand why the low overall rating (above).

Judas Kiss might have been a rather interesting thriller were it not cluttered with excessively brutal violence, and with too many sex scenes (totally unerotic, at that) taking place in bizarre settings.

The action nominally takes place in New Orleans but the locations used could have been just anywhere. For some reason the kidnappers’ hideout is an abandoned church where all the vestments, candles, and similar religious items have been left behind. Even when the kidnapping of a billionaire and the murder of a senator’s wife would be considered a very high-profile case, only two law-enforcement officers (and a couple of men doing electronic surveillance) appear to be working on the case. To further baffle the viewer, some of the camera angles and the editing add to the confusion.

Mind you, all of these things bother me, because, as a fan of the genre I truly enjoy a well-filmed, well-told crime story: I share Jorge Luis Borges’s opinion that a crime novel can be a microcosm of modern society, but I digress.

Alan Rickman plays David Friedman, an alcoholic police detective who is unexpectedly assigned to the murder case The detective that normally would have been assigned (and who is now married to Friedman’s ex-wife) has a broken leg. Emma Thompson plays Sadie Hawkins, the only FBI agent assigned to the kidnapping investigation. Their banter (in spite of some foul language) is one of the few enjoyable things in this film.

David: You got cash?
Sadie: For keeping my mouth shut?
David: For parking.

Roscoe Lee Browne and Hal Holbrook (remember The Stepford Wives?) are good too, which is why it earned the one-hand rating. Greg Wise was given the thankless task of playing the kidnapped victim and had to spend most of the film with his head inside a ski mask.

Mr. Rickman does a good job playing a man who’s seen better days – and who didn’t like what he saw. At least he was allowed to present his character in a straightforward way, and his character gets to solve the case. His police detective is a new character, different from any I’ve seen him play so far.

Crime-story fans that are also fans of Mr. Rickman might find Murder, Obliquely much more satisfying since M,O was done in a very simple, uncomplicated way that enhanced the mystery. In audio, Rope is a wonderful choice.

I shall continue praying to the film gods that they may soon grant us a good, widely distributed film worthy of Mr. Rickman's abilities.

Reviewed by Fausta, May 5, 1999

Another contributor to this site sent the following,

Don't forget to mention in your laundry list of things to criticize that--gasp!--it was broadcast within days of Earth Day, and at one point David Friedman is seen tossing a coffee cup out the window of his car. Add littering to its many faults!

As a postscript: Friedman & Hawkins are admirers of the novels of Jim Thompson, a superb writer. If you want to sample a film based on one of his novels, I suggest The Grifters, with Angelica Huston and John Cusack. While raw and unsparing, Thompson's books are definitely worth reading

El beso de Judas