The Serpent's Kiss

Amazon.com

Fans of Peter Greenaway's arch and ornate films (The Draughtsman's Contract, Drowning by Numbers) may enjoy The Serpent's Kiss. A young Dutch landscape artist named Chrome (Ewan MacGregor) is hired by a homely but rich landowner named Smithers (Pete Postlethwaite, In the Name of the Father, The Usual Suspects) to turn his overgrown estate into a masterpiece of topiary and hedge mazes. But unbeknownst to Smithers, Chrome is fulfilling the will of Smithers's ardent enemy (Richard E. Grant, Withnail & I), who hopes to bankrupt the wealthy man and seduce his beautiful wife (Greta Scacchi). When Chrome falls under the spell of Smithers's enigmatic daughter, all plans go awry. The strong cast wallows entertainingly in this mix of jealousy, decadence, intriguing visuals, Machiavellian schemes, and heaving bosoms, with Grant performing with his usual lurid gusto. The sumptuous Restoration-era costumes enhance this meditation on art versus nature. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Richard and Ewan... star power shows sometimes it isn't enough.......2006-08-14

The kiss of the serpent is rather a confusing film. Plots, people and ideas come and go such as Tara being a witch or not, the whole deal with the poisen, and even the background on Chrome seemed to me to be rather hazy and obscure. I love Ewan Mcgregor, but even he couldn't completely save this film. He lacked the enthusiasm that you see in such films like Down with Love or Big Fish.And Richard E. Grant, while being a very convincing villian, doesn't quite make us either fear or hate him as we are tend to be rather lukewarm towards him anyhow, so the evil character Fitzmaurice falls upon dead ears and becomes less then he should have been. I'm afraid the romance plot could have been better, but again, I've seen better. The whole desire/passion/obsession thing didn't quite work out and in turn makes the movie rather mundane. I think the only thing that made me interested was seeing how the garden turned out. Ewan showed more Passion towards his vegitation then Tara, and he only got properly excited when talking about his gardens.

However don't get me wrong, this isn't a completely wasted movie, and the five or so dollars I spent on it wasn't too much of a loss. But if you are on a budget, or rather unsure of this movie I'd suggest renting it from a friend, or waiting until your finances to improve. Then you might not regret the movie so much.

looks promising but is disappointing.......2004-09-15

I love period movies and Ewan McGregor, so I thought this would be a win-win situation. Thankfully I found this in the cheap-movie-bin at Wal-Mart for $5.50, so I didn't waste a lot of money on it. The acting is superb, the costumes are excellent, and I thought the sets were decent enough to not be too distracting. But the screenplay is ridiculous. The movie limps along meandering aimlessly in the first half without giving any real intro or background into the characters, and the second half seems to rush tying up all the loose ends. Fitzmaurice seemed to appear out of nowhere, or else I was just so bored that I completely missed that part. I think with any other director, this could have been a really enjoyable movie. I think my main beef with it is that there was not enough character development to keep my interest. I wouldn't even recommend this for rental, unless you are a film student who wants to study How Not To Ruin A Perfectly Good Movie!! I agree with the reviewer above, I don't even want to keep my copy and am going to donate it to the library.

Just doesn't work for me........2004-07-30

This movie just didn't hold my interest or offer anything spectacular. The sets I didn't like at all - everything looked artificial and felt too new for a period piece. I had a lot of hope for this film, as I am a big fan of most movies set during this time and of Ewan McGregor, but this just didn't work for me. Richard E. Grant's character was too unbelievable and overacted. Worth renting, maybe, but not owning. I'm selling my copy.

"A garden is a celebration of art's triumph over nature.".......2004-06-16

"The Serpent's Kiss" is a costume drama set in England at the end of the 17th century. Landscape designer Meneer Chrome (Ewan Macgregor) is employed to create a garden for Thomas Smithers (Pete Postlethwaite). Wife, Juliana Smithers (Greta Scacchi) has a bit of a wandering eye, and so far her eyes have roamed towards her foppish cousin, James Fitzmaurice (Richard E Grant). Fitzmaurice once courted Juliana, but he lost her to the wealthier Smithers. Fitzmaurice is responsible for Smithers employing Chrome, and it seems that this is all part of a shady plot of revenge.

A wilderness currently exists to the rear of the family mansion, and Chrome is employed to tame this wilderness and to design and create a spectacular garden. While planning the garden, Chrome becomes involved with daughter Thea Smithers. Thea (Carmen Chaplin), who also calls herself Anna, is a strange creature. She's apparently considered quite mad by her family. She's obsessed by Metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell, and quotes lines from "To His Coy Mistress."

I read several professional reviews that compared "The Serpent's Kiss" to Peter Greenaway's film "The Draughtsman's Contract." I see no such similarity beyond the period in which the films are set, and the fact that garden designs are involved. "The Serpent's Kiss" is really a rather silly, luke-warm love story, plonked onto the top of an implausible revenge plot. The villain--James Fitzmaurice--isn't villainous enough, and the plan of revenge is far-fetched, tepid and unlikely. Surely there are better ways to enact revenge upon the husband of one's lover than to make him build a really expensive garden. The planning and creation of the garden just seems like a pretty way to delve into the plot and create the false impression that we are enjoying authenticity here. And yes, to be honest, the creation of the garden is one of the more interesting aspects of the film. Other fascinating tidbits here include Thea's so-called medical treatments (including leeches) and the supernatural elements within the film. There is a deeper meaning to the story, but it seems to be created as rather an afterthought. I really wanted to like the film more for the slivers of originality it displayed, but unfortunately, overall the film was bogged down by mediocrity and the tepid love story--displacedhuman

Nature vs Man...I wish!.......2004-01-08

This is a bad film. There are many fine actors in it, people who have made mediocre films quite memorable. But they cannot salvage this turkey. The plot is obvious, the sets cheap and flimsy, the language never convincing, and the dreadful, tedious, and completely uninteresting Carmen Chaplin makes a overwhelmingly telegraphed romance not only unbelievable but implausible.

Nice costumes, but this is a lame film, never really addressing its "theme" and containing all sorts of mysterious and silly developments that are never utilized. Maybe it would have been good if they left all the missing stuff in, but for a boring movie it sure felt rushed. About the worst thing one could say about it....both way too long and not nearly long enough.