Holy Smoke (2000)

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The ingredients are all here to make this recipe into a winner. It's very much Campion fare with Winslet at perfection (most of the time). However, from the time the protagonist wets herself, we see Campion lose herself in the lush lust of the attraction and she doesn't stop at any time to pull herself out of it and get back to the story. This movie shows the director's personal thoughts exposing themselves on the screen. She seems to get just as horny as Keitel in directing the movie as his character does in it. She's irresistibly drawn to the sensual and doesn't seem to notice. Pity, because it was such an intriguing first half.Jane Campion is definitely not a prude and neither is she the least bit uncomfortable about outpicturing her carnal instinctiveness. I just wish she could keep her aspirations separate.

I'd never heard about this before the other day, really only sought it out because of Kate Winslet. She's pretty great in this, really childish and amateurish in her character's approach to life, but yes, it's all well drawn in the character (although I could see many having a problem with it). Her accent is pretty spot-on as well, great job. Keitel is solid as well, although for some reason his role or performance don't mesh as well in terms of effectiveness. Something about it prevents it from being able to accomplish what Winslet did. The film is certainly odd, an oddball mix of scenarios and story lines and certain genres. It's not bad though, but it's not all that good either. Still, worth a watch if just for Winslet, who is among our greatest actresses.

I wanted to like Holy Smoke more than I did. There is a clear study in the film, a likable element about it that establishes one thing, develops that and then has the audacity to spin things around onto its head for our own amusement. The film isn't bad as much as it is a little misguided and inconsistent in tone; thus, a tad frustrating by the end. It would have been nice for the film not to have spilt out into a realm of comedy and not get so over-rawed by itself when it relies purely on the image of Harvey Keitel in a dress to get across feeling instead of developing what new level it's attempting to lever up onto.The film is principally a study of the power certain people or 'texts' can have over others, or those of a weaker, more naive, disposition. The one thing the film does tell us is that it can be anybody who falls for the charms or tricks of anybody else, even macho PJ Waters (Keitel) who is supposed to be this ego-driven; ever immune; hard-as-nails; 'never takes no for an answer' and 'nobody puts one over him' caricature. The film's other victim of texts or ideation's that have 'influenced' them to act in artificial ways is a certain Ruth Barron (Winslet), a simplistic and relatively likable Australian girl with a steady life and a family that is very fond of her.PJ exists in the film because of Ruth's inability to deal with the influence a certain Indian guru's image and ideas have on her. Ruth exists in the film to bring PJ into her life and furthermore influence him in both a spiritual and sexual sense. For the best part, the film looks at what affect certain texts and teachings can have on the young and outgoing plus whatever affect those attempting an anti-thesis on these beliefs can further suffer at the hands of their own patient. Unfortunately, the film cannot hold it all together and incorporates elements including, but not limited to: slapstick comedy; loose, sexy women as a drive for potential humour; well-known, female global stars in the nude for sake of hearsay as well as well known, male global stars dressed as women for a similar sake.The film begins with Ruth in India. Whilst there, she falls under the influence of a popular Indian guru at the tapping of a forehead and a staring into the eyes. Job done, it would seem. Following this, she becomes trapped in the mindsets and ways of life so much so, that her mother has to fly out in order to 'rescue' her. Ruth doesn't come home initially, but after some banter and some comedy revolving around what a supposed dump really India is, she returns to Oz. Once home, there is a particularly eerie scene in which members of her own family have gathered as one to subdue her, thus refraining her from escaping back to the 'evil' world of India with all their 'evil' influential practises that they do on young, Western women. Could have been worse; they could've conned her into giving away her credit card details as well.Hark, when there's something strange – and it don't look good, who are you going to call? Why, PJ Waters of course – a man listed somewhere in the phone-book under 'exorcist', I imagine. PJ is charged with ridding Ruth of these Hindu beliefs. I didn't think it would be so easy, otherwise we wouldn't have had a film, would we? I was expecting it to bed down and become a struggle of sexual politics as this gum chewing, snake skin boot wearing, shades wearing person, who's given all the build up he needs, went up against this young woman out to discover herself in the big, wide world. I was expecting a study of identities, a look at the role of one's self in contemporary Australia and how the Indian 'beliefs' perhaps elevated her to a new spiritual sense thus helping her see things the way she wanted.What we get is a bizarre passage of events. The 'exorcism' plays out and mutates into a sort of 'patient begins to become object of doctor's desire' relationship between the two that further aids in bringing out PJ Waters' feminine side, so to speak. I found it quite amusing at how female director Jane Campion turns the tables on us; how she presents the female of the piece as weak minded and foolish, while the male is the battle-weary, intellectual individual out to 'correct' the female before mixing it all up and turning it on its head. Alas, on the whole, Campion is more interested in shooting Winslet in an array of skimpy outfits (before Kietel gets a chance of his own); she is more interested in a young boy dressed as Batman jumping off a car roof and smacking into the ground as a guardian fails to catch him; she is more interested in the flirtatious attitudes of Yvone (Lee) to act as humour and when lines like "I'm sorry Ruth, I should never have slept with you." from PJ evoke guffaws more than anything else, you sort of realise things are not all well.There were some things I liked about Holy Smoke, but they aren't focused on enough for me to recommend it. Once Ruth becomes PJ's object of desire following a bizarre scene in a night club, the film falls apart somewhat and just becomes a slightly unconventional love story with very un-cinematic, and un-likable in equal measure, words like 'quirky' and 'kooky' being able to be attributed to it. The premise has been solved, we're heading off in new directions and the whole thing just fizzles out in a misery-strewn manner. Not a disaster, but not focused and even enough to be fond of.

Holy Smoke (1999) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Extremely bizarre story of a young woman named Ruth (Kate Winslet) who gets involved in an Indian cult, which worries her family. The family brings in a deprogrammer (Harvey Keitel) who is a specialist at breaking young woman who have fallen under the spell of cult members. I can't say this is a totally winning film but it did keep me entertained from start to finish and just when you thought it couldn't get any stranger it certainly does in its second half. This film really isn't about cults but instead the struggles between men and women. The first film has Keitel pulling his magic on Winslet who, in the second half, gets her revenge by putting her hooks into him. Whereas the first film has some sort of religious undertone the second half is a weird sexual journey, which includes Winslet in a full nudity scene, one with her kissing a woman and we even get to see Keitel in a dress walking around a desert in one boot. I'm really not sure what the film is trying to say or if its even trying to say anything at all. Campion is best known for The Piano, which also had Keitel but that film seems normal compared to this one. I've heard people call this a feminist movie, which might be correct but again the ending would lead you to believe this isn't correct. The movie is all over the map in terms of what it's trying to say and do so I guess it's going to be up to the viewer to try and make up their own mind. I'm sure many people will find the film slow and boring but the pacing is what dragged me into the movie and got me caught up with the characters. I think fans of Keitel and Winslet will be the ones walking away entertained because both give great performances and really work well together. Both are so deep into their roles that you can't help but be fascinated by each step they make and in the end they're what saves an otherwise pointless film.