It's in his kiss

When I was in high school I used to tell my boyfriend(s) (if you can call them that, and the only reason I do is because I've yet to think of a more accurate term), I used to say to them, "kiss me like you mean it". There's this idea that a lot of women have that you can tell a lot of things from a kiss, not just how you feel (if a someone kisses you and you feel nothing then you know, without any further investigation that he's not for you), but how they feel. There's even a wildly popular song about it ("if you want to know if he loves you so, it's in his kiss").

I have not really ever believed this or more accurately I've been on the fence about it. I was always more of the "a kiss is just a kiss" school of thought. When I told boys to kiss me like they meant it I always assumed that they could (regardless of how they really felt about me) but somehow the resulting kisses always fell short of that expectation so maybe, somewhere in the back of my mind I believed that there really is something you can tell just from a kiss. I have definitely always had a very specific idea about what makes a good kiss and a bad kiss and yet I've also found that even a remarkably bad kiss can be better than a remarkably good kiss if it makes me feel something.

A friend of mine would probably argue that the answers are in a look, not a kiss. She was recently talking about how hot Timothy Olyphant was in the movie Catch and Release, not because of anything about his appearance, but because of the way he looked at Jennifer Garner. I have a name for this look. I call it the fillet mignon look. You see, sometimes a guy will look at you like he's been starving for months and you are nice juicy fillet mignon. It's a difficult look to resist and, I think, a difficult look to fake (which makes it all the more impressive when you see it portrayed in film).

Perhaps you're wondering what brought all of this to mind. Well, I watched P.S. I love you this weekend. This wouldn't normally be my type of movie. I mean, yes, I'm a girl, so the lure of a good tear jerker isn't lost on me (nor is the lure of naked Jeffrey Dean Morgan lost on me), but I think tear jerkers have a very fine line to tread and this one, from the previews I'd seen, I thought probably crossed the line. You see, tragedy happens and in film there is a tendency to accentuate it with the obvious intention at tugging the viewers heart strings and that contrivance tends to put me off. This movie didn't cross that line though and I was pleasantly surprised. So pleasantly surprised, in fact, that I watched it twice.

In the film there is a minor character that puts potential dates to a rigorous test, first she asks if they're gay, then if they are single, then if they are employed and finally she kisses them. Mind you these are guys she's just introduced herself to, never met them before, and if they fail any of these tests she simply walks away. Clearly the first two are pretty vital tests, the third I might take issue with since she doesn't bother to get into the circumstances at all, but the fourth I really wonder about. Yes, if you kiss someone and feel nothing that could be a deal breaker, but if it's a complete stranger I think you might be skipping a few steps that might have some affect on what you feel when you kiss them (like getting to know them first). She's not the only one that puts a lot of weight on first kisses. The main character has a couple of first kisses as well, one falls short and she and the guy agree they are better as friends and another one that is so great she marries the guy. The girls in this movie clearly believe that the truth lies in his kiss. However, what really struck me were the looks that passed between these characters. Jeffrey Dean Morgan definitely gives Hillary Swank the fillet mignon look several times. If a guy looks at you like that you can't not feel something. You just can't.