Now that we’ve officially begun our fun filled film advent calendar it’s hard to decide where to continue after The Nightmare Before Christmas was behind door number one yesterday. We need a film which continues the Christmas theme yet doesn’t jump into the full Christmas spirit just yet. After all we are only on day two so Christmas classics like Home Alone and Elf can’t come up just yet. However I believe I’ve found just the film…
Starring Robert Downey Jr (or Tony Stark, he’ll probably answer to both) and Val Kilmer, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a Christmas movie, however it’s not the most conventional Christmas movie. Christmas just happens to hang around in the background and pop it’s head round the corner every now and then. Which means TECHNICALLY it’s a Christmas movie and so TECHNICALLY it can go into the Advent Calendar – My calendar, my rules.
What Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is primarily, is a murder mystery in which RDJ and Val team together and use their great powers of on-screen chemistry to solve a double mystery which brilliantly plays out in the same way as a series of novels which get mentioned throughout. Downey Jr is the highlight of the film as Harry Lockhart, a thief turned actor due to the most bizarre turn of events ever. As Harry is accidentally hired to screen test for a new detective film, he is soon paired with Private Investigator Perry Van Shrike (Kilmer) to get some experience which will hopefully help with his upcoming role. As Perry introduces himself and says straight off that the time spent together will be boring as it’s not like the movies, soon things become interesting. Because, lets face it, this is a movie and it’s what we want to see so why complain? All the while Harry puts in a bit of narration here and there which breaks the fourth wall spectacularly as he speaks to the audience in some frankly hilarious and ever so smartly done dialogue.
Whilst the storyline does get a bit hard to follow at some points it moves at such a pace that it’s not really a problem for very long. Just as you think it’s all figured out you realise there’s about 40 minutes of the film left and so twists and turns begin which, for a Christmas movie isn’t the best of things. However as I believe I pointed out earlier. This isn’t really a Christmas movie. In fact its a detective movie which just happens to involve Christmas a bit.
But fear not, for as the month continues the story-lines will become easier to follow and we’ll soon be able to sit back comfortably with Macaulay Culkin, Will Ferrell, and the rest of the usual Christmas gang. As usual, comment below with your thoughts, ideas and suggestions and do join me tomorrow to see what’s behind door number 3 and to see if I can fit ‘Christmas’ into an article more times than I have done today.