Cold Mountain (2003)

A Last Fleeting Kiss Before War

In Cold Mountain, North Carolina, prim and refined, bonnet-wearing Southern woman Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman) awkwardly presented Confederate volunteer soldier Inman (Jude Law) with parting gifts just as he left for the Civil War in a marching procession.

She gave him a book and a tintype picture of herself ("I'm not smiling in it. I don't know how to do that. Hold a smile").

As she hurriedly and nervously walked by on the porch to leave, he responded by hungrily kissing and spinning her around as he embraced her and lifted her off her feet.

They were interrupted when other young soldiers ran by on the porch, joking: "He'll be back in a month" and "Kiss her for me."

He hurriedly dressed to join the parade of soldiers leaving town, and tipped his hat as he left, as she promised: "I'll be waitin' for you."

Later, they remembered the day of his departure for war:

Inman: "The way you felt when I pulled you to me. That kiss - which I kissed again everyday of my walking."
Ada: "Everyday of my waiting..."

The Cooler (2003)

Unbelievable Love/Kiss Pairing

Director Wayne Kramer's feature film debut (originally rated NC-17 but edited to an R rating) told about chronically bad-luck Las Vegas casino cooler Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy), who fell in love (his luck changed also) in an oddball romance with mob-run Shangri-La casino cocktail waitress Natalie Belisario (Mario Bello). It was often commented upon as an amazing mismatch of star attractiveness.

They kissed and passionately made love together in two very realistic bedroom sex scenes. During their first-time lovemaking in his dumpy motel room on green sheets, she did a striptease down to a tight white leotard that revealed a pair-of-dice-tattooed on her left buttocks - to the piano-tinkling tune of "Luck Be A Lady Tonight" ("You may not be an angel, 'Cause angels are so few"). Although he was embarrassed when he prematurely climaxed rapidly as she straddled him, she assured him: "You gotta great c--k!" and then cupped his private parts with her hand as they laid side-by-side.

Their second love-making scene was much more graphic, and engendered the most controversy. It began with a closeup of her sweaty and straining face as she was pleasured with oral sex. Then as he moved up on her body, he affectionately kissed and nuzzled both of her breasts, and went on to further kisses. Afterwards, they both banged on the motel room wall while simulating wild sex, to aggravate and pay-back their loud and over-sexed next-door neighbors.

The Dreamers (2003, Fr./It./UK)

Bloody, Sexually-Awakening Kiss

Director Bernardo Bertolucci's NC-17 explicitly-rated film of sexual discovery and intimacy was set in the summer in Paris in 1968. It involved a continual series of semi-incestuous encounters between the three characters, all fellow cineastes:

• Isabelle (Eva Green), an uninhibited, naturally-buxom, and surprisingly virginal blonde, Theo's twin
• Theo (Louis Garrel), Isabelle's possessive, brooding twin brother
• Matthew (Michael Pitt), a blonde, American cinema exchange student

After Matthew's failure to identify the film Scarface (1932) (during the group's cinema trivia contests), Isabelle stripped down to be totally naked before him. His forfeit was to serve as a mediating lover between the twins by making love to Isabelle in front of Theo. After Matthew was declothed, he lowered himself onto her and entered her for noisy, grunting intercourse on the apartment's kitchen floor, as Theo non-chalantly fried eggs on the nearby gas stove.

In the so-called "blood-on-the-face" scene, Isabelle was - surprisingly - shown to be virginal, when she was deflowered and bled. After they finished having sex, Theo touched Isabelle's forehead and thigh and brought up his fingers covered in blood - and Matthew also took some of the blood from her broken hymen/vagina and smeared it onto her face as he ardently kissed her.

Later, Matthew took Isabelle on a traditional date to the movie theatre where he kissed her properly.

Gigli (2003)

Gobble-Gobble Kissing

In this famously laughable romantic comedy by writer/director Martin Brest, real-life tabloid lovers (at the time) Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez (dubbed "Bennifer") were featured as star-crossed lovers continually having a war of words, although they projected little if any sexual chemistry:

• Larry Gigli (Ben Affleck), a chauvinistic mobster enforcer
• Ricki (Jennifer Lopez), a lesbian-leaning ("clam-licker") hitwoman

Ricki performed yoga in spandex shorts, and spouted some truly objectionable and vulgar dialogue. When she kissed him and squeezed his nipple, he flinched and she told him: "I thought you wanted to be my bitch" - he responded: "This is so f--ked up," but he kept on kissing her.

She leaned back, rocking her leg back and forth and notoriously and animalistically requested oral foreplay during the seduction scene, as she gestured toward her crotch with her legs spread, to his amazement:

"It's turkey time...Gobble, gobble."

She further clarified: "Now, you talk the talk. You know I'm expecting you to walk the walk. Come on. Show me what I've been missing my whole life. Lay some of that sweet 'heterolingus' on me." When he tried to explain how a man was at a disadvantage with a woman ("...actually a woman might know more... about what feels better to another woman. She's a woman herself"), she stopped him: "Shut up and get over here."

They kissed further and made love in an extended love scene, after which he told her: "God bless you, penis" and she concurred with him about how all relationships had a bull and a cow - after which he 'moooed.'

Lost in Translation (2003)

Enigmatic Whispered Thought and Kiss

In director Sofia Coppola's romantic film was a story of friendship and shared confusion between two individuals who found a refuge with each other during their short acquaintance:

• Bob Harris (Bill Murray), a middle-aged, married, disconnected movie star who was suffering a mid-life crisis
• Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a bored wife of two years

He was in Tokyo, Japan to film a Suntory Whiskey commercial, while she was being ignored by her photographer/husband John (Giovanni Ribisi) on assignment.

In the enigmatic ending set on a busy Tokyo street, there was a muffled whisper in Charlotte's ear during an embrace. He told her:

"I have to be leaving, but I won't let that come between us. OK?"

They then shared a long poignant kiss before he departed.

Love Actually (2003, UK/US)

"Merry Christmas" Kiss and Heathrow Airport Arrivals

Writer/director Richard Curtis' ensemble film was dubbed "the ultimate romantic comedy" - with its tale of numerous romantic relationships among its many interlinked characters during one Christmas season in London.

One of the stories involved the marriage of Juliet (Keira Knightley) to husband Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor), with Mark (Andrew Lincoln) serving as their best man. However, Mark remained love-struck and heart-sick at Juliet's tying of the knot. In the film's most heart-breaking scene, he showed loving, written placards at her door expressing his love to her, to the sound of a boom box softly playing a Christmas carol. When he left, she ran into the street and kissed him out of compassion and affection. As he walked off, he muttered to himself: "Enough, enough now."

Also, in the closing montage scene of arrivals one month later at London's Heathrow Airport, the split-screen ending featured numerous kisses and greetings.

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

"Just a Sample" Kiss

This Wachowski film was the second of three parts of the Matrix trilogy, occurring about six months after the events of the first film.

Duplicitous and sexy Persephone (Monica Bellucci) was the emotionally-needy, love-starved buxom wife of evil Matrix software program Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) - her "pompous prick" unfaithful husband. The duplicitious, treacherous, and rebelliously-sexy Persephone bargained with messianic Neo (Keanu Reeves), asking for a "sample" kiss in exchange for delivering them to the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim):

"I'll give you what you want, but you have to give me something...A kiss...I want you to kiss me, as if you were kissing her [Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), Neo's lover]...You love her, she loves you. It's all over you both. A long time ago, I knew what that felt like. I want to remember it. I want to sample it. That's all. Just a sample...It's just a kiss."

A Simple Request for a Kiss

Although Trinity objected and angrily drew her gun, Neo decided to trust her. Persephone stressed: "You have to make me believe I'm her" - and rated their first kiss as "terrible."

Their second, passionate attempt was filmed in close-up, after which Persephone sighed - satisfied with his ecstatic kiss: "Yes, that's it." Persephone then turned to Trinity and said: "I envy you. But such a thing is not meant to last."

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

"I'm Not Letting Go" Kiss

In the action film's conclusion, the heroic superman Neo (Keanu Reeves) chose to save Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) who had entered the Matrix to save his life.

He caught her body before she hit the pavement (the end of his recurring nightmarish dream) in a battle with a Matrix agent. As she was dying from a bullet wound in the chest, he reached inside of her (within the Matrix) and extracted the bullet. Although her vital signs showed that she died, Neo wouldn't let her go:

"I know you can hear me. I'm not letting go. I can't. I love you too damn much."

He reached into her chest cavity and revived her heart - and then kissed her after she was brought back to life. She told him: "I guess this makes us even."

[Note: at the conclusion of The Matrix (1999), Trinity kissed Neo to bring him back to life, see earlier.]

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

Last Dying Kiss

Neo (Keanu Reeves) was able to sense AI intelligences as fiery objects as he and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) navigated with the Logos craft on to the 'scorched-earth' Machine City, but they were overwhelmed by Sentinels and lost power in an electrical storm.

When they crash-landed, Trinity was lethally injured when impaled. She encouraged Neo to continue on and save Zion without her:

Trinity: "You will. I believe it. I always have."
Neo (pleading): "Trinity. Trinity, you can't die. You can't. You can't."
Trinity: "Yes, I can. You brought me back once. But not this time. Do you remember on that roof, after you caught me the last thing I said to you?"
Neo: "You said, 'I'm sorry.'"
Trinity (explaining): "I wish I hadn't. That was my last thought. I wished I had one more chance to say what really mattered. To say how much I loved you. How grateful I was for every moment I was with you. But by the time I knew how to say what I wanted to, it was too late. But you brought me back. You gave me my wish. One more chance to say what I really wanted to say. Kiss me. Once more...kiss me."

She gave Neo one last kiss before expiring, when her hand went limp in his. Neo wept over her body.

Thirteen (2003)

Rebellious, Experimental Lesbian Kiss

This authentic R-rated coming-of-age film from writer/director Catherine Hardwicke was an autobiographical account of the life of the teenaged co-scripter and star. The taglines were: "It's happening so fast" and "They're Not Little Girls Anymore." The two main characters, troubled young teens in Los Angeles in middle school, were:

• Evie Zamora (Nikki Reed), a rebellious, trouble-making and persuasive teen
• Tracy Louise Freeland (Evan Rachel Wood), a 13 year-old, straight-A, honey-blonde 7th grader

Evie led Tracy into a world of rebelliousness and neglectfulness that included a dangerous mix of random sex with boys, lesbian experimentation with each other, drugs, shoplifting, body-piercing, self-mutilating abuse and more.

In one scene, Evie provoked Tracy about kissing, followed by Tracy's response and challenge to convince her that she was a good kisser:

Evie: "You don't know how to kiss, do you?"
Tracy: "Oh. No, no, no, no, no. Yes, I do. Me and Noelle practiced with Cruel Intentions like 50 times...So, you want me to prove it, lesbo?"
Evie: "Hell, no! (But they kissed each other anyway)... (taunting and giggling) "I barely even felt that."
Tracy: (assertively) "Well, see if you f--king feel this one, then!" (They kissed even more passionately)