Marisa Tomei turns in a blitzkrieg performance.

The helming debut of thesp Fisher Stevens, who mixes swell ensemble acting with eye-popping animation for a witch's brew of good sex, bad timing and very funny dialogue.

First-time director Fisher Stevens has a flair for dialogue comedy, the film operates nicely off the element of surprise, and the large cast is solid -- especially Marisa Tomei, who in an extended cameo as a merry dominatrix rarely has been more convincing.

What elevates the movie above the run-of-the-mill singles blender is its surreal sense of humor and technological finish.

The film's moralistic streak leaves a sour taste, especially because its battle of the sexes is so wildly off-balance.

This small-scale film isn't for all tastes. But veterans of the dating wars will smirk uneasily at the film's nightmare versions of everyday sex-in-the-city misadventures.

Though the cast ends up looking good, the film's unwillingness or inability to have things add up hurts everyone's efforts.

Stevens has a keen sense of the absurd, but the whole thing is too forced - and his use of "rotomation" (last used in Richard Linklater's "Waking Life") to give a Timothy Leary-swirl to key dramatic moments winds up looking incongruous.

Its cool, glib observations, delivered by good-looking creative people who live like the cast of "Friends" gone cynical, becomes forced and often stupid. The film goes off the track enough to make for an interesting train wreck.

A twisted black comedy -- The accomplished ensemble meshes nicely, but the actors all look pale and exhausted, an effect that may be a byproduct of the film’s photography, which is terrible.

What a mess.

Stevens, an actor taking charge from the other side of the camera, and writer and co-star Breen are going for a romantic black farce, a darkly noble idea, but one that requires far more empathetic characters and funnier situations than they've created.

The result is a small independent film suffering from a severe case of Hollywood-itis. A cautionary tale minus the caution, Just a Kiss is just a cop-out.

It's coherent, well shot, and tartly acted, but it wears you down like a dinner guest showing off his doctorate.