Kiss of Life

While her husband John (Mullan) is away doing aid work in the war-torn Balkans, back in London Helen (Dapkunaite) is trying to keep things together with their two kids and her father-in-law (Warner). Then, before her son's eyes, she's knocked over by a car. Will she survive the accident? And how long will it take John to get home? It's a little hard to pinpoint precisely why this first feature disappoints. Clearly a heartfelt, ambitious attempt to treat the theme of loss and grief, it boasts sterling work from both the dependable Mullan and Dapkunaite. But the other performances are unilluminating and the evocation of South London lends the film an aura of the earnest person's version of Notting Hill or About a Boy. As it shifts solemnly back and forth between reality and dream, past and present, London and Europe, the film gradually gets bogged down in a slightly trite conceit that evidently had more promise than potential.