Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Natalie de Molina, Alex Garcia, Paco Leon, Ana Katz, Silvia Rey
Intro:
...romantic, sensual and funny, but definitely adult.
Kiki, Love to Love is a sex comedy that shows the fun and misadventure that accompanies uncovering the sexual aspect of relationships. It’s a passionate and romantic comedy about sex, not a raunchy tale of debauchery.
That being said, Kiki, Love to Love is definitely not for the prudish. The film starts with a visual comparison of animal and human intercourse, and immediately goes into a discussion of harpaxophilia, also known as arousal from robbery.
That’s just one of the colourful words that audiences can learn from Kiki, Love to Love, but despite the salacious nature of the film, it has real heart. At its core are five stories of love in a Madrid community, not tales of the depraved. This film treats sex as one of the fundamental parts of a relationship, even when that sex is uncommon.
Director Paco León also stars as one half of a couple looking to reignite the spark in their relationship. León plays Paco and Ana Katz plays his wife, also named Ana. Paco and Ana, with encouragement from their friend Belén (Belén Cuestra), adventure into the world of sex clubs. Some of the film’s funniest moments – and also some of the lewder – happen as Paco and Ana discover the fetish community.
León’s storylines invite us into the lives of these characters in a way that might start as uncomfortable for some, but is approachable, welcoming even.
Kiki, Love to Love is a comedy that takes the high ground and does not resort to mocking fetishes. The film takes them as very serious character traits that lead to some of the comedic moments, finding the humour and reality of the search to uncover a fetish, understand what turns someone on, or an effort to create an orgasm.
One of the particularly questionable relationships is between José Luis and Paloma, played by Luis Bermejo and Mari Paz Sayago, respectively. This couple’s story, about a plastic surgeon and his wife, approaches an uncomfortable and complicated border of assault that is not properly wrapped up.
The ensemble performances are all strong and ground some of the more heightened situations in the film. Despite moments that reach for an obvious laugh, the blend of physical, situational and smarter comedy brings even more life into the film.
Despite the risqué subject matter, Kiki, Love to Love is not pornographic or crude. It is romantic, sensual and funny, but definitely adult. It is a stereotypical Southern European way of thinking about love and making love, but with a fresh voice and modern situations.
If all of this sounds familiar… Kiki, Love to Love is a remake of Josh Lawson’s comedy The Little Death. Unlike that film, though, Kiki killed it in its native box office and will most likely do better in Australia than its source material did. Go figure.
