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A terrific performance by lead actor Matt Dillon is hamstrung by an addle-brained screenplay and a lifeless, robotic co-starring turn from Sean Young, who remarkably fails to capitalize on the opportunity to play a pair of juicy twins. The only semi-believable aspect of this thriller, based on an Ira Levin novel filmed once before, is the base, simmering need of Dillon's character for success. The actor gives off palpable waves of rage-fueled desire, barely contained, that almost make his intellectually questionable, homicidal decisions convincing. The key word here, however, is "almost." The film never quite works in its effort to persuade viewers that an individual of Dillon's looks, brains, ambition, and charisma would need to resort to murder in order to get ahead. The actor works hard to express inner angst and aggression but he doesn't get much help from his script or director, and his character is left a walking question mark. He and the equally fictional Patrick Bateman of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho (2000) are distant cousins, but the latter is far more believable due to his clearly defined, obsessive, unhinged mania. A Kiss Before Dying is sabotaged to an even greater degree by Young, who seems adrift and confused in her dual performances, one role distinguishable from the other primarily due to the change of hair color.