Rating: 
Summary: from a "cult" member...
Review: I don't have time to write much now, but wish to comment. I had to see this movie because I myself have a living Indian guru. The writer and director of this story was quite successful in portraying the emotion of the experience of receiving shaktipat from a guru, and indeed, it can be a transformative experience if it is from a true guru. My husband and I cried when Ruth's third eye was opened, recalling our own experiences. Although Ruth does not end up returning to her guru, she does return to India, with her mother, no less, to continue on her way. This suggests that the guru in the story was not a cult leader. She received true shaktipat and healing which not only sustained her through her ordeal with PJ, but also transforms and heals PJ from his own personal traumas. The end was truly beautiful example of divine forgiveness. Thank you Jane, what a pleasure!
Rating: 
Summary: This is worse than going to the dentist
Review: There can be little question that this is one of the worst and most pretentious films I have seen. The plot is an attractive young woman goes to India. She joins an ashram but her parents in Australia are to lacking in sensitivity to understand the beauty of her choice. They lure her back to Australia and have Harvey Kietel try to deprogram her. She is the stronger as she has experienced beauty. The portrayal of the parents is simply grotesque. The script one of the most leaden with dialogue that is embarrassing to listen to. See something else.
Rating: 
Summary: 'Tis A Pity.....
Review: ....the second half of this film lets it down considerably as there are loads of things I love about it. Winslet's performance is one of them. She is very, very good as lost soul Ruth who, having been tricked into returning to her home in Australia by her family who fear for her when they discover she has got involved with a cult in India, finds herself having to clamber her way to back to sanity after having been brainwashed by an Indian guru and then, to make matters worse, gets too involved with her Exit Counsellor JP Waters, played by Harvey Keitel (not bad but could be better). Although I already liked her as an actress my admiration for Kate Winslet as increased considerably after this. The film itself is clever, quirky and original and I love the fact that Jane and Anna Campion have added comedy to a potentially purely-serious story. But when the film starts to move into darker waters it becomes slow and patchy and the intensity isn't there enough to be completely clear. And PJ's sudden declaration in the desert supposed to be the explosion of his mounting change of attitude (you're also not that clear as to whether this is a tactic or what - could have been a clever part of the story but isn't clear enough to be certain) just isn't convincing enough and thus annoying. Still liked it on the whole though.
Rating:
Summary: Smart, funny, bizarre.
Review: I can safely say this is the strangest movie I've seen in a goodly long time. In a way, it's more bizarre than surreal classics like Eraserhead, because it deals with real people and the strange things they do with and to one another. Kate Winslet plays Ruth, a callow young Australian who gets involved with a cult on a trip to India. Her talk of reincarnation and living in light baffles her parents, who are convinced she's been brainwashed (though Ruth's 'conversion' seems more of a whim than a rebirth). So they hire PJ Waters (Harvey Keitel), a 'cult exiter,' to talk her down. Waters is all American swagger, dyed black hair, all-black wardrobe, snakeskin cowboy boots. He simmers with smooth arrogance; he expects no trouble from his troubled teen charge. He spirits her away to an isolated hut, and all heck breaks loose. Refreshingly, this isn't a movie about faith and religion. I was none-too-eagerly anticipating long discussions about God. Instead, the conversation veers into sex and gender roles, exposing PJ's arrogance for the chauvinism it is, letting Ruth give him harsh lessons in female empowerment. None of this makes too much sense -- the conversations are non sequitur, events unfold contrary to one's expectations. But it's fascinating and hilarious, so that's forgivable. The important thing to remember is that you're watching a *comedy*; don't make the mistake of taking the proceedings more seriously than did the filmmakers. If nothing else, watch it for the cinematography. Campion knows how to set up a shot; the whole film is infused with Australia's glowing oranges and reds. In short, a beautifully shot, funny film, a bit nonsensical, sure to spark controversy and discussion. Definitely see it if you've got an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: Kate Winslet Saves This Film
Review: I am a huge Kate Winslet fan and I was excited to watch Holy Smoke. I knew the film was off-beat and quirky, which gave me even more reason to watch it. Unfortunately, half way through the film I turned it off. The movie's story line was completely wasted, as were the talents of Kate Winslet. Harvey Keitel's performance was, to say the least, stale, and Ruth and PJ's relationship was unconvincing. Kate delivers a flawless performance that was over-looked by critics and audiences, though with a better movie she would have earned more praise.
Rating:
Summary: HORRIBLE MOVIE!
Review: This is the worst movie I have seen in a very long time. I love Harvey Keitel and Kate Winslet so I thought this would be a good film. The story is a very interesting one and could have been developed into something great. Visually it is stunning. However, after a fairly good start developing some eclectic characters the movie degenerates into something nearly unwatchable. Don't think I am saying this because the nudity or profanity (of which there is a lot) offended me. It is just that the story line goes nowhere. Characters seem to behave in ways that are contradictory to their development. Storylines go nowhere. Keitel's character makes no sense whatsoever. If I were any of the people associated with this film I would leave it OFF my resume.
Rating:
Summary: A great lead-off spirals into unimpressive farce.
Review: HOLY SMOKE was looking good for the first 30 minutes or so of the film. I had just watched Kate Winslet in HIDEOUS KINKY the night before, so I wasn't really prepared for the comedic tone of HOLY SMOKE. Actually, I think HOLY SMOKE would be a better film if it hadn't been treated as an off-the-wall comedy and had instead been depicted as quirky drama. So, at first, I was intrigued by the unfolding story of Ruth (Winslet) looking for a rock to cling to in India, in a cult led by the dubious guru known as Baba. When her nervous mother showed up on the scene with asthma and fears of pestilence, I was hooked. Then Campion ripped Ruth out of India (right when it was getting interesting) and plopped her back in Australia with her dysfunctional family and P.J. (Harvey Keitel), the cult reprogrammer. The remainder of the film consisted of little more than Ruth and P.J. going at one another, both verbally and coitally, while Ruth's family fretted farcically in the background. At the last minute, Campion tried to imbue the story with some kind of credibility by glossing over the subject of kindness and how important it is in our emotional development, but it was too little, too late. By then, Winslet had urinated down her own legs (what was that supposed to be about?) and Keitel was babbling and wearing an ugly dress, lipstick and cowboy boots. Sorry to have to say it, because I had greater hopes for this film, but it's really not worth watching.
Rating: 
Summary: Takes On the Big Issues
Review: This movie deals with a very contemporary problem. People want love but seem to lack the courage to give it. The young lady finds a guru and is entranced by his message of love. Yet, we are impressed by her self-centeredness, which he tries unsuccesfully to hide behind the flowery words of hindu mysticism. She is brainwashed. Her deprogrammer shows himself no less brainwashed. Instead of a guru, he worships youth and especially young women. He does not love them, but seeks them as some kind of antidote to aging and meaninglessness. Besides this main theme, I found it interesting that Campion is not afraid to demystify the feminine. Instead of portraying the woman as free from fault and the man full of fault, she creates more complex figures that defy political correctness.
Rating:
Summary: If you hate The Piano, you'll really hate Holy Smoke!
Review: More anti-feminist crap from a woman who seems to think she's a feminist director - Jane Campion. Her movies continually trap women in bizarre circumstances, where the female characters then show themselves to be passive-aggressive doormats. So Kate Winslet's character is accused of being a man-hater because she yells at the man who has trapped her, insulted her and had sex with her during her most vulnerable moment (which he engineered)? Typical Campion. So Kate Winslet's character begs forgiveness when she has fought back against that same man (who trapped her, insulted her and had sex with her during her most vulnerable moment)? Typical Campion. The only good thing about this movie is Kate Winslet, who is lovely, complex, intelligent and sexy. Her performance redeems the 2 hours of my life I spent watching this thing.
Rating: 
Summary: promising but pointless
Review: The subject of cult deprogramming has been dealt with in serious terms by any number of filmmakers, but director Jane Campion seems to be the first to approach it from a satirical perspective. The employment of such a mocking tone could easily open an artist to charges, on the one hand, of anti-religious bigotry and, on the other, of treating too lightly the real devastating consequences - for both the `victim' and their family - of a person's involvement in either the cult itself or the deprogramming that comes after. For the sheer audacity of her vision then, the Australian filmmaker - along with her co-writing sister, Anna - deserves a certain amount of acknowledgement and praise. Unfortunately, `Holy Smoke,' after a rather promising first half, falters badly, becoming, in the final analysis, mannered, unfocused and, above all, pointless in both its tone and message. The first half of the film is fitfully amusing as we are introduced to Ruth (Kate Winslet) and her colorful Aussie family, the Barrons. It seems that Ruth, on a vacation to India, has fallen under the spell of a hypnotic guru and her disapproving family has devised a scheme to haul her back and submit her to the methods and wiles of PJ Waters (Harvey Keitel), the world's most successful cult deprogrammer. So far so good as Ruth's `mum' (played by the delightful Julie Hamilton) hops aboard a plane to India to find her daughter and bring her back to Australia and, consequently, her senses. Mum's fumbling attempts to comprehend this alien, exotic culture provide the heartiest laughs in the film. Unfortunately, once Ruth and PJ are locked away in an isolated cabin in the outback for a bit of one-on-one deprogramming, the film completely loses its way, abandoning the eccentric members of Ruth's family and forcing us to observe, almost exclusively, these two far less interesting characters. For a while the film does raise a few pointed issues. We wonder, for instance, what kind of people fall prey to these brainwashing spiritual leaders; then we ask ourselves, if the alternative of returning to a presumably empty existence is really so much better. We contemplate as well whether the deprogrammer really has the answers - or is he, in addition to restricting the freedom of choice of this adult individual, himself compensating for some internal emptiness he fears to acknowledge? Sadly, such morally ambiguous themes go largely unexplored, as Ruth and PJ lock horns in an increasingly bizarre and decreasingly funny battle of wills. Soon, Ruth is wandering aimlessly around the compound stark naked (funny, usually it is Keitel who does the full frontal nudity thing in his films!) and PJ is allowing her to dress him up in women's clothing and daub his face in lipstick and makeup. As the Campion sisters lose their grasp on the themes they have so brilliantly set up, we become more and more uninterested in the story's outcome. Ruth never becomes a full-fledged character in her own right. We are given virtually no inkling of what kind of life she led before her trip to India or of what exactly led to her feeling of spiritual emptiness. PJ, predictably, violates his own professional ethics code by falling in love and sleeping with his patient, an act that has not the comic thrust to compensate for its queasy distastefulness. Thus, despite a promising beginning - and some very good performances by a gifted cast - `Holy Smoke' leaves the audience pondering the why and wherefore of its existence. If one is going to make a comedy out of such touchy material, one had best figure out a clearer destination and map out a better strategy to get there.
|
