Prelude to a Kiss 1992

Peter Hoskins, a conservative and self-conscious employee of a Chicago publishing house, attends a lively party where he meets Rita Boyle, a liberal, seemingly free-spirited part-time bartender who aspires to be a graphic designer. The two are drawn to each other and quickly fall in love, with Peter feeling a buoyant surge of confidence and optimism in Rita’s company. Rita, in turn, captivates him with warmth and charm, even as she reveals a deeper, protective fear: she worries that the world can be unjust and cruel, and she resists the idea of motherhood or bringing children into such a place. This tension between longing and fear gives their whirlwind romance a bittersweet edge, inviting a closer look at what it means to trust another person with one’s future.

On their wedding day, a curious moment arrives when a weary elderly man requests a kiss from the bride. Charms and benevolence carry the moment, and Rita agrees. As they share a kiss, their souls switch places, and the couple’s fate takes a fantastical turn. The newly ordained Rita finds herself inhabiting an elderly body, while Peter awakens to Rita’s familiar form but with a vastly different set of experiences and limitations. The elderly figure known as Rita, disoriented and wandering, ends up at the address on Julius Blier’s ID, setting off a series of perplexing discoveries about identity, love, and what truly makes a person who they are.

The couple leaves for a honeymoon in Jamaica, during which Peter notices that the person posing as Rita bears a different depth of knowledge and feeling. The newly swapped partner eagerly proposes having children, a suggestion that clashes with what Peter previously believed about his wife. Upon returning home, the illusion remains: Rita’s body seems to carry Rita’s essence, yet Peter suspects something profound has changed, possibly the result of Rita’s diary being read or studied to perfect a masquerade.

Seeking answers, Peter tracks down the elderly man and learns the astonishing truth: the elderly visitor is, in fact, connected to Rita, and the real Rita—though now in a different body—exists somewhere between the past and present. With this revelation, Rita (in the elderly man’s body) leaves to be with her parents, the Boyles, and they must navigate life under dramatically altered circumstances. In this unusual arrangement, Peter and Rita begin to rebuild their marriage, learning that affection and compatibility can survive beyond physical form and that the passage of time can illuminate what truly matters.

As they try to piece together a path forward, Peter discovers Leah Blier, Julius Blier’s daughter, and learns about Julius’s life, illness, and the limited time he has left as he battles terminal cancer. This compassionate proximity to mortality impacts both of them, highlighting the value of life’s fragility and the ways in which love can endure beyond appearance. Rita’s perspective softens as she recognizes life’s finitude and the importance of treasuring each moment.

Meanwhile, Julius’s presence in Rita’s life—though initially a source of displacement—allows for a shared understanding: the fears and envy that motivated the body-switch moment in the first place revealed themselves as universal fears about aging, youth, and what one has to lose. After a powerful exchange, Julius and Rita realize that their shared anxieties have less power over them than the commitment they feel toward one another. They both want to escape fear and envy, and in a climactic turn, the magic that tied their fates loosens, returning them to their rightful bodies. Julius bids a quiet farewell as Rita and Peter, now more aware of each other’s inner life, resolve to never take their time together for granted and to invest more fully in the life they share.