Dylan (Shane Curry) and Kylie (Kelly O'Neill), two tough 11-year-old neighbors in suburban-housing-estate Dublin, flee their abusive homes in search of a better and more adventurous life in the inner city.
From there, Kisses resembles a prepubescent, hard-boiled version of Before Sunrise as the two spend Christmas Day bouncing about the snaking streets, shops, busker-inhabited piers, and serial-killer-lurking alleys like pinballs in a flashing machine — all of it captured by director and cinematographer Lance Daly's smooth and wondrously lighted camerawork.
They bump into some real point-plummeting clichés: the Wizard of Oz switch from black-and-white to color once they leave their homes, and the Much Anticipated Kiss. But they also cash in on some jackpots of inventiveness: a chase scene on Heelys, the use of a Gameboy as a weapon, and prostitutes with advice on romance. When it's not trite, Kisses can be refreshing in its realism.
