The film is uncompromisingly dark (both figuratively and literally), graphically disturbing and horrifically ugly. Warning: If you can't take the sight of a tattooed Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction) naked, draped in chains and committing all sorts of heinous crimes, you may want to skip this one. However, if you can get past this, the film offers intriguing storytelling with a unique style.Butterfly Kiss is a road picture of sorts, beginning with the wildly vain Eunice (Plummer), who, while ranting through convenience stores looking for a particular music cassette, antagonizes most stores' personnel, beginning with a sales clerk named Judith. When Eunice's menacing behavior triggers unfriendly responses from the clerks, violence becomes her outlet of frustration.
Continuing her search, she questions another clerk, Miriam (Saskia Reeves), whose gentle nature brings her to ask Eunice to her home. Immediately fascinated by her impulsive, outlandish demeanor, Miriam leaves her elderly mother and drab home to follow Eunice on her path of ruin.
The two embark on a road adventure involving a string of murders, stolen cars and sexual encounters. Nevertheless, the film is not a series of gratuitous events. It's actually about two women searching for companionship and liberation from the evil that they seem to bring with them.
In a film without one attractive person, place or thing, the final scene, despite all of its apparent brutality, is surprisingly beautiful. After enduring their frustrating endeavor, the rage subsides and the two women come to terms with each other in the most extreme of manner.
British director Michael Winterbottom commented on the characters he created in the film: "I like to work on something which will draw an audience into situations in which they would normally wish to avoid. You like these characters much more when you know you can safely return them to a box in the corner once the program is finished."
Similar to last year's Clean, Shaven, it successfully delves into the mind of a disturbed individual in the most graphic manner and delivers a powerful, satisfying ending. Highly original and ultimately moving, Butterfly Kiss is a fine film for those who can bear to watch it.