Kiss Me Goodbye (1982)

Kiss Me Goodbye movie storyline. Kay is the widow of a Broadway showman called Jolly, who died after falling down a staircase at their home. Kay is now planning to remarry, to a stuffed-shirt named Rupert, and they live in the same house. Suddenly Jolly returns to her life as a ghost.

Seen only by her, Jolly meddles in Kay’s affairs and causes her mother and others to question her state of mind. On a romantic weekend in the country together, Kay and Rupert are accompanied by Jolly, who is annoyed by Rupert’s pretending to be able to see and hear him. The situation comes to a head back at the house, where a colleague of Rupert’s attempts to stage an exorcism. Jolly, finally convinced that Kay will be okay without him, kisses her goodbye for good. The film ends with Kay and Rupert getting married at the wedding rehearsal, rather than waiting until the next day.

Kiss Me Goodbye is a 1982 American romantic comedy film directed by Robert Mulligan, and starring Sally Field, James Caan and Jeff Bridges. It is a remake of Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos in Portuguese), a 1976 Brazilian film, based on Jorge Amado’s book of the same name. It marked Claire Trevor’s final film role.

Field was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical for her performance, but Caan later said that he hated this film, as he did several films in which he appeared either just to keep working or for the money. In a 1991 interview, Caan claimed that making Kiss Me Goodbye was one of the most unpleasant experiences of his life, and that as a consequence, he did not make another film for five years.

Film Review for Kiss Me Goodbye

ROBERT MULLIGAN’S ”Kiss Me Goodbye” is like a Nassau cruise ship with eight bars, seven discos, five swimming pools and no compass. It sails out of New York, turns left instead of right at the Ambrose Lightship and heads confidently toward sunny Iceland.

The movie, which opens today at the National, Baronet and Bay Theaters, has the self-assurance of the ignorant. It’s a consistently lugubrious comedy about a perky young widow (Sally Field), the ghost (James Caan) of her late husband, who was a successful Broadway dancer and director, and the Egyptologist (Jeff Bridges) the widow plans to marry.

All this sounds familiar because it is. A tiny screen credit says that it has been ”suggested by material from Bruno Barreto and Jorge Amado.” What the credits don’t say is that that material is ”Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands,” the mildly saucy 1978 Brazilian film directed by Mr. Barreto and adapted by him from the Amado novel. Because the same material has already ”suggested” a flop Broadway musical titled ”Sarava,” it may be time to put it in quarantine. It’s a disease and it’s contagious.

Much of the humor of the Brazilian film was based on the fact that the widow, played by the beautiful and frequently unclothed Sonia Braga, continued to enjoy an active sex life with the ghost of her husband who, in all respects except love-making, had been a boor.

In Mr. Mulligan’s glossy visitation, in which people don’t undress very often, the ghost can’t – as they say -”do” anything. Visible only to his wife, he just sits around and makes snide remarks as Mr. Bridges attempts to make love to the distracted Miss Field. This is, I think, the film’s only joke.

Mr. Mulligan’s direction perfectly matches Charlie Peters’s screenplay in that both are humorless. The leads aren’t great either. Miss Fields is neither Sonia Braga nor Irene Dunne and Mr. Caan, who appears to be imitating Gene Kelly, can’t. Mr. Bridges behaves as if he were a family’s faithful old dog, the sort of slobbering animal that will sell his soul for a pat on the head.

For the record, I’d like to mention the principal members of the excellent but unused supporting cast -Paul Dooley, Claire Trevor, Mildred Natwick, Dorothy Fielding and William Prince.

Directed by: Robert Mulligan
Starring: Sally Field, James Caan, Jeff Bridges, Paul Dooley, Claire Trevor, Mildred Natwick, Dorothy Fielding, Alan Haufrect, Maryedith Burrell, Stephen Elliott, Michael Ensign
Screenplay by: Charlie Peters
Production Design by: Philip M. Jefferies
Cinematography by: Donald Peterman
Film Editing by: Sheldon Kahn
Set Decoration by: James L. Berkey
Art Direction by: John V. Cartwright
Music by: Ralph Burns
MPAA Rating: PG for some vulgar language and some not very explicit sexual situations.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: December 22, 1982