tomsview One of the surprises of "Kiss the Sky" is how it stays in the memory.Two men deep in midlife crisis leave their families behind and go for a holiday in the Philippines. After a drug and sex-fueled stopover in Manila, they continue on to a remote resort where they meet an Australian girl, becoming involved in a Ménage à trios – although threesome would be a more accurate description. In their search to recapture the experiences of their youth and find true meaning to their lives they abandon home, family and responsibility.William Peterson and Gary Cole play the two friends, Jeff and Marty. It is fascinating to see William Peterson in movies before he became Gil in "CSI". "Manhunter" comes to mind along with "To Live and Die in LA". His low-key approach allowed him to meld with those roles very effectively, and so he does here.Sheryl Lee plays Andy, the girl from the Australian countryside who is also travelling in a search for self. Sheryl Lee is brilliant. She does an almost perfect Aussie accent – nearly as good as Amy Walker's of "YouTube" fame. Apart from mastering the accent, she projects a sense of worldliness and vulnerability.Jeff and Marty encounter a funky Buddhist monk played by Terence Stamp who gives the guys almost the perfect excuse for what they are doing when he relates how Buddha, before he became 'The Buddha', abandoned his family and life as a prince to pursue his vision.Although things go fine for a while, the three-way setup starts to unravel. Jeff and Marty discover that there is no escape from the things that trouble them. Jeff's conscience cuts in and he realises the pain he has brought to his family. He returns to them but the ending leaves us wondering.Skirts, shirts, undies and sarongs hit the bedroom floor fairly regularly in "Kiss the Sky"; the movie contains a lot of nudity. Although it is fairly tastefully executed, it could help explain why the film is not more widely known. I think audiences are still uncomfortable with this much bare skin whether in a movie theatre or in a lounge chair at home. In one list of the 200 highest-grossing movies of all-time – most made since the end of the "Hollywood Motion Picture Production Code" in 1968 – there are perhaps three that have any nudity in them at all. Maybe profit is not a perfect measure of the artistic merit of a movie but I think it helps illustrate the point.Despite a fair amount of pop psychology and philosophy, it all sounds quite profound in the context of this film. However, "Kiss the Sky" also manages to pose some challenging questions.The soundtrack features songs by Leonard Cohen that connect so perfectly with the spirit of this movie that you'd be forgiven for thinking they were written especially for it. "Kiss the Sky" works well on so many levels; it is well worth the effort of seeking it out.

FilmLabRat Wrenching depiction of the male midlife crisis, in full bloom - completely acted out, with a kiss-off to the proverbial "American Dream." Well-cast with great scenery and direction, this film brings the audience into the internal struggle of two 40-something men trying to figure out what they and women really want out of life and relationships. With hopes and desires crumbling all around them, the American Dream not satisfying them, they accept the notion of process and continuous unsettlement, whether back with their families or off in a Buddhist monastery. The problem is not in what they have or do not have - it is with themselves. Very poignant angst captures the postmodern mindset.

tisra60611 I rented this movie as part of a personal film festival on the theme of "Whatever-Became-Of the Principals of 'Desert Hearts (1985).'" In this case, I wanted to see the recent movies of Patricia Charbonneau, who as one of the reviewers said, still looks great.I am a woman in her late 30's, so it was hard to relate to the subject matter. The movie is about two very successful, upper middle class men in their late 40's who are decent guys and have loving families, but who nonetheless feel absolutely empty. It was good to read the user comments to see that the theme had resonance with middle-aged, successful men. (Yikes, I thought, is it really that bad to be a white guy who, at least by appearances, seems to have it all?)Net-net, I'd recommend the movie since it touches on a theme that apparently has resonance with a significant portion of the population, which is obviously not appreciated by those not in that segment.

ekammin-1 This film's underlying idea is about two middle-aged friends who find themselves in male menopause at the same time, and decide the thing to do is to change their lives completely. An interesting idea, but one that has been the basis of plenty of films. The thing is that they decide to do this by building themselves a large structure in the Philippines, where they can escape the outside world by means of sharing the attentions of one woman they both find attractive (of course, they swear they won't be jealous of each other, they are all just so damn spiritual), as well as the company of a dubious Zen Buddhist monk, played by Terence Stamp, who should have known better.Had the makers of this film treated their antics in a humorous way, this might have been an enjoyable romantic comedy. Instead, they treat the whole matter with ponderous earnestness, with the three main characters sprouting clichés of trivial spiritual `wisdom' right and left; one is taken aback by the possibility that the script writers actually took all this rubbish seriously. So, what could have been a pleasant film ends up as a ponderous, crashing bore.