One More Kiss (1999)

I've seen several movies of this genre before but this one was just unsettling and disturbing for me (I suppose it was realistic and honest, though).

Sarah (Valerie Edmond) has returned home to Scotland, having lived in New York for seven years, to tell her childhood sweetheart, Sam (Gerard Butler), and her dad, Frank (James Cosmo), that she is dying of cancer. She wants to spend as much time as she can with Sam and complete her list of things to do with him. However, Sam is now married to Charlotte (Valerie Gogan) who doesn't like the idea. However, Sam agrees to spend time with Sarah and gradually his marriage starts to fall apart. Then Charlotte presents him with opera tickets for his birthday and Sam is left with the ultimate dilemma: Charlotte or Sarah?One More Kiss is a very moving film and should strike everyone on some level. The characters are played believably with the best performances coming from Gerard Butler (the reason I bought this film) and James Cosmo. Valerie Gogan is very good as the jealous wife, but Valerie Edmond came across very rehearsed, it didn't seem natural and Danny Nussbaum playing Jude, a fellow cancer sufferer, was also a weak performance. You react strangely to the characters than you would expect. Sympathy lies with Sam who's best friend is dying and his wife is getting very angry with him. You also feel sorry for Frank, who is lovable and rather clueless and out-of-touch, which adds some comedy to the film. At first you dislike Charlotte because she's trying to stop Sam from seeing Sarah, despite her condition. However, this initial thought changes as you see, along with Charlotte, her perfect marriage crumbling before her. She is very cold in things she says about Sarah. At one point Sam says "She's dying, Charlotte" and Charlotte says that Sarah should "get on with it." This doesn't really strike as a cruel blow because her life (Sam) is being taken away from her for someone who is doubtful that they'll last the year. At first you feel sorry for Sarah as she has returned home to spend time with her childhood sweetheart and his wife is reacting coldly to her. However, Sarah appears more and more selfish, wanting Sam to put his life on hold for her to live what she has left to the full. You see the presence of Sarah tearing apart the marriage of Sam and Charlotte, until it comes right down to the dilemma mentioned earlier.A stand out quote in this film, which I really liked, is when the cancer sufferer group is in a meeting and Jude is being a whiny, self-pitying child and says in a raised, angry voice: "Would anyone like to buy more f*cking cancer?" and one man says softly "I would buy it from you, Jude. If I could." Just a very touching moment.As I've said the story is great, the acting is great and I strongly recommend this film to anyone. I'm a horror movie fan and I loved this. 10/10 from me. Check it out and see if my character summary is right.

I bought this movie on E-Bay not knowing anything about it but being seduced by the title, the fact that Gerard Butler was in it, and the description from the video jacket. One More Kiss? A definite waste of money. The heroine was a royally selfish pain who left me cold with her plight: I kept wanting to smack her instead of empathize with her. James Cosmo and Gerry Butler in their roles were excellent. Perhaps the heroine was told to play the role as she did but if so, the director should have been shot. It would have helped a lot to those who are hard of hearing and those of us who are not too familiar with Scottish dialects to have had captioning. The only saving grace was looking at the scrumptious Gerard Butler.

The performances by all the cast were extraordinary. I bought this on DVD, because I am a fan of Gerard Butler, who played Sam, the childhood sweetheart of the dying Sarah, who returned home to Scotland from NY to find him, when she learns that she is dying of cancer.Gerry Butler gives a very believable performance as Sarah's married former sweetheart, who still loves Sarah, and arranges to spend as much time with her as possible doing many of the things she always wanted to do. Frank, Sarah's father had spent the last 7 years sitting around waiting to die, Sarah's return forces him to start living again. This story takes us inside a therapy group for cancer sufferers, where we meet a 24 year old man who rages because he never had a chance to do anything with his life. It is a quiet gentle movie, with a lesson for everyone about making every day count.