Kissed (1996 , R)

This film is not for everyone, let me just say that from the start.  It's about a girl played by Molly Parker (from several tv series such as Deadwood, Shattered, Dexter) who has a fascination/obsession with death.  She doesn't wear black (ever, I think) and she doesn't write mopey poetry, but she has this... "reverence" is probably the best word for it... for the dead.  It's somehow less creepy than it should be (a little less creepy) because she seems to have a genuine love for the departed rather than a morbid curiosity.  The movie starts with her as a child as she caresses a dead bird she found and rubs it on her neck before "enshrouding" it in toilet paper and planting it in a grave in the woods behind her house.  And it goes on from there.  She grows up and the film follows her obsession through each phase of her life.  Ultimately with her taking night classes in college and working full time in a funeral parlor (her dream job) during the day.  The childhood scenes seem to take place in the early 1960's and the young adulthood scenes in the '70's.
 
I almost turned off the movie partway through, not because I found it offensive (though I imagine there are plenty of those who would), but because it didn't really get anywhere storywise.  And the gross factor didn't help.  I stuck with the movie, and like many other films that I almost turn off, I got more invested in the characters and fell into the story over time.  Eventually I even got lost in her world to the point where her scenes with the dead and discussion of it didn't gross me out (though there was a scene later on that had my jaw on the ground).  But back to my point, the plotless vignettes of her youth eventually gave way to an actual plot story.  There are a couple of other characters that we meet in the film such as the owner of the funeral parlor, the janitor at the parlor, and a boy she meets in college.  The whole film is narrated by the girl and she has this quiet, slow, but articulate voice that I tend to enjoy (kind of like Gattaca).  Kissed has a very original story idea that gets carried out to it's logical conclusion (I suppose it could go farther, but not very).  Many of the ideas/questions raised are when she discusses it with the boy and, much like in Sleeping Dogs Lie, he can't get it out of his head.

It's really thought provoking and I imagine a college student could write an interesting paper on the various questions and ideas raised in this film.  If you liked The Virgin Suicides and Curdled, then you'll probably like this movie.  Or in some vague ways, Gattaca.  If you're a casual audience, you'll probably just be offended by it.  For me, this movie is about 2 stars.  I want to give it a higher rating because it was original well thought out at the end, but it's really hard to sit through and the early part (while I suppose necessary for the end) is a difficult barrier to entry.  It would be really interesting to discuss with somebody, but I don't think I know anybody who'll watch it based on what I could tell them about it.  You know what, no, I'll give it 3, not because it's middle of the road (far from it!), but because it's in a hard tug-of-war: it's really provocative (which is good) but really hard to watch.