"The Better To Eat You With."

With my nuptials only a few months away, I've taken it upon myself to revisit several films focused on the issue of marriage. Surprisingly, there does not exist a high percentage of positive stories on the position of forever and ever.

I remember seeing Prelude to a Kiss when I was younger and recall my eleven year old brain attempting to expand twice its size. It's a tricky concept, this notion of forever and ever. A story about a man and a woman having their lives turned upside down on the day of their wedding by a pesky episode of the wife and a stranger switching bodies makes this a little complicated.

No matter how you slice it, marriage gets a bad rap in film. Whether it's a tale of a couple not making it down the aisle because of their feelings of a long last love. A familiar tale of boy meets girl, boy falls out of love with girl. A marriage that falls apart years and years later... Marriage seems to carry a rain cloud over head.

Prelude to a Kiss seemed to be a slight exception. What starts as a common theme takes a delightful twist that leaves you with an unfamiliar feeling.

We meet Rita and Peter, (Meg Ryan and Alec Baldwin) in the blissful throes of that first stage of attraction. They meet, fall head over heels and soon make their way down the aisle. Yet during their reception, an odd elderly man stumbles in an appears out of place. He and the nervous bride exchange a silent moment before engaging in a congratulatory wedding kiss. The sky turns black and immediately we know that they have switched souls. What follows is an unfortunate string of events that clue Peter in to the fact that he does not know who he has married.

We've all seen movies portraying the switching of bodies and how it works for the protagonist to gain knowledge about themselves and the world around them. But I felt like Prelude to a Kiss was one of the greatest exceptions due to the exquisite way the characters interact after this event takes place.

To me it was more of a metaphor for how most couples can have that uneasy feeling surrounding this business of ever after. What if this person changes? What if this person isn't who I think they are? What if one day that thing they do with their fork sends me through the roof? Really, who is this person after all? What better way to highlight those questions than the physical switching of personalities and souls.

Baldwin's character feels the disappearance of his bride and the pang of loneliness in the days following this evident loss. That lively, vivacious woman he once loved seemed to have the light fade behind her eyes. The way she chewed her food, the way she sat in a chair, the way she didn't get his jokes. Everything was gone and he was in exquisite despair.

What the couple learns in the end is important and real. I can only hope that on the day of my wedding, I don't need to switch souls with anyone to learn this lesson. Hopefully I'll learn this lesson the old fashioned way....twenty years from now.