This odd little Australian film wants to be a thrilling, lovers on the run movie and while it gets the second part right, the film is far from thrilling. Shot in a strange, film school type style that utilizes a great deal of "jump cuts" -- where within a shot the view jumps as if some film has been cut out -- the movie feels as haphazard as the editing. For a pair of criminals who initially appear to be "smart" at what they're doing, they turn out to be rather stupid, and perhaps that's the point of the film.
What it does, though, is make the audience lose whatever interest it had in the characters. For instance, after being careful not to leave fingerprints at the accidental murder scene, Nikki throws the dead man's credit cards and photos from his wallet out onto the highway -- with her fingerprints all over them. Later, they steal a couple's truck -- which the police obviously will look for -- while their earlier vehicle was not, we assume, on the stolen vehicle list. The film also turns stupid -- or better yet, lazy -- by allowing the police and Doyle to too easily track down and find the lovers in very remote sections of Australia. Similarly, it takes Al too long to take action after he thinks Nikki has killed several people in her sleep.
Overall, these elements and others give the film a sloppy feel, and bits of humor -- usually between the two detectives -- are lame and not that funny. The big part of the film that's supposed to make us follow along with bated breath is whether Nikki, Al, or someone else is responsible for the murders. The plot device just doesn't work, though, as not enough teasing elements or suspicion and tension are created to make us really care. Instead, we just sit back and watch these characters go through their motions.
The performances are decent, but not great (although O'Conner did win the best actress award at the 1997 Montreal Film Festival for this role), and Barry Otto (who was tremendous in the little seen "Cosi") is vastly underused as a stranger who catches a ride with the couple and reroutes their trip. While the idea of having lovers on the run who don't know whether they can trust each other probably sounded very exciting on paper, it's execution here on the big screen is rather poor. We give "Kiss or Kill" a 3 out of 10.