Rating: 
Summary: Devastating
Review: I indeed recommend this film - for any an open mind out there that would revel in the twining of such view, or in the depth of such color ~~ as what is found in this movie...And so, for that prodigious elite who've read this far, I'll bestow upon you a premise and an opinion: This is a story of Ruth, a young woman who, while in India and in a moment of reverie, wholeheartedly gives away her body and soul to the cult of Chidaatma Baba, no less even to Chidaatma Baba himself. Her family back in Australia, when they learn of this, invest their every available extreme of effort, time, and money into restoring her to sensibility. For the task they hire an American, P.J. Waters, a reputed cult exiter. Now, I must say that I've rarely seen two more excellent actors pitted so fatefully against each other than in this instance, with Kate Winslet as Ruth, and Harvey Keitel as P.J. Ah - and it's a perfect dance of chemistry! As he strives to free her soul, which shakes the core of her beliefs - she strives to free his body, which shakes the core of his passion. And they both deliver - and succeed ultimately in tearing each other apart. Yet there is no loss of hope - no desolation of feeling to be found at the end of this unique, exhausting film. I actually found myself lifted higher - an ascendant plane - a scope of optimism - (oh - I could go on, but I'll spare ya, this time...) What really sucked me in - drew me entranced, like air, no matter, into whatever course upon this drama meant to take me - was the music: Opening with Neil Diamond's HOLLY HOLY, and continuing absolutely flawlessly through every note of every song on the whole balance of this soundtrack. I mean, really, how can anything be less than beautiful art to the ears and to the soul than the music of both Alanis Morissette and Neil Diamond on the same soundtrack? And here you have Kate Winslet and Harvey Keitel in the same movie! Indeed, Ruth's theme is HOLY HOLLY, her battle-cry YOU OUTA KNOW, while P.J.'s is I AM, I SAID - And Ruth, shouting the lyrics as she speeds down a barren Australian highway, actually adds more passion (a feat I'd never before dreamt possible) to Morissette's YOU OUTA KNOW. How wonderful! A long time ago, when I was still but a child, Neil Diamond did his own rendition of Leonard Cohen's SUZANNE. One disappointment in this film was that they did not use this beautiful song, for in the end it was fitting for our heroine and hero's bemusement as their humanity betrays them - As they struggle to ascend from depths of shame and vulnerability, with Ruth naked and pleading, with P.J.'s plaintive "Be Kind" as he grovels after her wearing a red dress. Suppose that any good life, like any good movie, may be splotched here and there with pain, and with humility. And it's the stuff of such poetry - for among other heart-wrenching stanzas, in the brooding SUZANNE, he sang: "And you want to travel with him - Ah, you want to travel blind - And you think that you may trust him - For he's touched your perfect body - With his mind..."
Rating:
Summary: A MESS OF A BRILLIANT IDEA, BUT A WORTHY AND WATCHABLE ONE..
Review: Jane Campion rides a slippery slope: an Australian woman (Winslet) visits India and becomes indoctrinated with a cult. Sounds like a sombre enough subject, but not in the hands of Campion. We are served instead a slightly more doozy fare: a part satire, part romantic comedy, part drama and part...ahem...soft porn. There's a good deal of nudity here, and if you are a Harvey Keitel fan, that could be reason alone to grab a copy of this. Truth be told, Keitel is in fact almost embarrassing, especially towards the tail of the movie, which he spends mostly wearing a dress (don't ask.) Visual splendour of other forms abounds as well. The film sports some gorgeous shots of the Australian outback and Indian pilgrimage towns. Not that any of this really does much to the bizarre "deprogramming" dialogue. If anything saves this movie it has to be one of a couple of things: (1) Kate Winslet, who is not only very beautiful and sensual, she also lends a great deal of comic credibility to her role. (2) The second thing that no reviewers here seem to have noticed is THE mindblowing SOUNDTRACK! Overall the movie is somewhat of a mess with a highly implausible denouement twist, but its probably a worthy ride for Winslet/Keitel fans. Recommended rental.
Rating: 
Summary: Off to a great start then ran amok
Review: Maybe I'm a prude? I thought the idea of a family kidnapping their daughter back from an Ashram in India and having her "deprogrammed" by Harvey Keitel was great and the movie started out great but it really derailed as the sexual relationship between the deprogrammer and deprogrammee developed. I found the last 20 minutes uncomfortable to sit through.
Rating:
Summary: Harvey K In A Dress & Lipstick: A Sight To Behold!
Review: I am a big Harvey Keitel fan but even I never expected to see the big HK getting gussied up in Kate Winslet's clothes and make-up. That pushes this movie a bit over the top toward movie's end as the two stars get more and more entwined. I did like, however, the whole idea of a film's turning the religious deprogramming experience on its head, where the deprogrammer and not the "religious fanatic" strikes the viewer as the crazy person. Experience Winslet's extended family in the movie (Keitel's employers) for even a little while and you will easily understand how the religious, withdrawn life would have enormous appeal for her. I couldn't stand that family! This film is sort-of a romance between the characters played by Keitel and Winslet. Its not like its writer-director's (Jane Campion's) "Piano", which also starred Keitel, but the romance element is there. Who convinces whom of his/her beliefs? Well, you'll have to see the film to find out that but there is nothing that takes the expected route in this film. I enjoyed Keitel even more in the recent "Finding Graceland," where he manages to convince me by film's end that he's Elvis Presley. I have yet to see Winslet in a role where she fails to deliver a full blast performance and this was no exception. I thought she looked great in her one nude scene. The movie is 4 stars for me, instead of 5, because it was even a bit too weird for me. Normally, I love weird.
Rating: 
Summary: Campion catastrophe
Review: Alright, so the other reviews on this page either love or hate this film. I did neither. I was just bewildered, because it was obvious that Jane Campion was trying to make a 'different' film. Sadly for her, she took on way too many ideas, issues and themes to address in one movie, and no matter what one might think, 'Holy Smoke' is an unmitigated disaster due to this. To say that this film has no direction is an understatement. I wouldn't say that Campion made a mistake with this movie, but I do agree that it deserved to be a critical flop. Kate Winslet as usual is excellent and radiant, and the cinematography here is spellbinding - excellent work. Also, the opening scenes in India are fab, and very well researched. The scene where Ruth's third eye opens is both comic and breathtaking, but all of this translates to nothing. Campion sets solid groundwork, and then forgets to take off. Instead, she shifts the focus from the true meaning of spiritual enlightenment, to one of the battle between the sexes, and this is boring. Harvey Keitel is insufferably horrendous as the 'exorcist'. And Ruth's entire family (I hate the way they made the entire family seem dysfunctional - a cheating father, a lunatic mother, a sex-straved sister, a gay brother - as if that was a 'deficiency', and a retarded brother) literally 'rapes' her to hand her over to therapy. This grips you in the beginning, but all of Kate's acting cannot veil the fact that her character is weakly written and confused. The VHS version of this film is strikingly close to the DVD version in terms of color transfer. The shots of the Australian outback, Indian streets, and the images of Kate Winslet as an Indian Goddess who enlightens Keitel are all beautiful and well done and look splendid on film. The thoroughly unbelievable climax though, sinks whatever hope you might have had of this film recovering and you end up pitying Campion. What were they thinking? This is no 'Hideous Kinky', and I am thankful for that. That was a classy, direct film with heart. This is an empty, yet pretty shell. Good to look at but not worth anything. I cannot believe Kate Winslet let herself be wasted in such a role. She deserves much, much better.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but lacks a good ending.
Review: The movie with the flip title of Holy Smoke, from the Academy award winning filmmaker Jane Campion (The Piano) has great cinematography, a good script and excellent performances by Harvey Keitel and Kate Winslet (The Titanic), but the story lacks something in its resolution. Kate Winslet plays a twenty-something who leaves her family in Australia to become a follower of a guru in India. Her family in the outback is nuclear, and large, but they are somewhat frayed around the edges. Kate is very emotionally intelligent, uninhibited, sensuous, sexy, beautiful and full of life and love. (Hint: I'm in love with her!) She went to India with a friend looking for a higher love and more meaning to life than she found with her family in the outback. She feels and believes she has found it with her guru. Kate's family, especially her narrow and close-minded mother, is terribly disturbed about this. To them travelling to India and following a guru are as screwed-up as one can get. Of course, her mother thinks she's doing drugs. Kate's mother in particular is a psychological basket case. She is blind to the fact that her daughter is bursting with life and freer than the whole rest of the family put together. The family hires a professional cult deprogrammer, an old, very hard looking (like Charles Bronson ) and very macho Harvey Keitel to deprogram Kate. The general deprogramming process consists in kidnapping the person for several days and assaulting their most cherished beliefs until they give them up. In going to India and following the guru, what Kate did was no different than going on a pilgrimage or retreat and having a religious conversion. By comparison, her life would have been several orders of magnitude more controlled had she joined a convent. One of the things Kate's family is so upset about is that she considers herself married to the guru. (She has had no relations with him.) This is no different than a Catholic nun who considers herself a bride of Christ, which is what all vowed nuns consider themselves.
I don't believe in differentiating between cults and the so-called legitimate religions, but nothing about Kate's new lifestyle and beliefs has any of the characteristics of what we popularly associate with cults. I found the initial abduction scenes very disturbing. To see such a free spirit being captured like an animal is emotionally wrenching. Legally, it's kidnapping.
It feels all the worse because the kidnappers think they are doing a great good and because the parents are authorizing it. What they did is in the same moral category as murder, murdering your own child, but in this case it is murdering your child's spirit. The process, as depicted in the film, is beyond emotionally abusive. One feels rage at such a violent attempt to destroy a person's soul. Throughout, the persistent and indomitable Kate tries several creative means to try and escape. Soon after Harvey Keitel has Kate sequestered, he starts have sexual relations with her. This occupies the longest part of the film. Harvey Keitel makes a colossal fool out of himself. Near the end, Harvey Keitel's girlfriend, an African American career woman, shows up unexpectedly from Houston, Texas. Her arrival and actions are not blended in to the film credibility. When she arrives, she finds Kate nude on a coach and puts two and two together. She appears only a little bit upset at Harvey, and intellectualizes by telling him that he could ruin the girl. The film is full of ironies and paradoxes. The family believed Kate was under the control of the guru, but Harvey Keitel abducted her after freely returning to the outback to visit her family. At the beginning Harvey Keitel tells Kate how he followed a guru when he was a young man and was sexually abused by him. That is exactly what Harvey does to Kate the next day. At the end, when Kate's mother and aunt realize that Harvey has been abusing Kate, they get so desperate, they pathetically dig an old crucifix out of a closet and try to recite the Our Father. (This is the only indication of western religion in the film.) Kate's mother, ever pathetic, can't remember the words. Kate is the one who should be praying for her family not the other way around. Harvey Keitel's job was to break Kate. In the end, it was Harvey Keitel who broke down. I can't call it a triumphant victory. Kate didn't break Harvey Keitel; he broke himself. All Kate did was survive. The images of the outback, especially the deserted highways running are wonderfully. The are different enough from anything else as to appear surreal. I love he idea of a place where you can drive for hours without seeing another vehicle, where you can drive like a nut or on the wrong side of the road and no one will know or care. I'm not sure if I should recommend this movie or not. See it if you're a Kate Winslet fan. To me she looks quite different in every movie. In The Beach (skip it -it's garbage), she looks very elegant and pure. For Holy Smoke, she must have put on thirty pounds. By the way, she's twenty-five, married and had a baby this past October.
Rating:
Summary: holy mackerel
Review: there are many reasons to perhaps watch holy smoke & even respect campions' work although this is far from her best in my opinion. overall, i really did enjoy this film but some of the scenes are a tad bit silly & don't really enhance what could've been a brilliant film. holy smoke opens up with some beautifully photographed scenes in india amidst neil diamond's classic song "holly holy". pretty classy if i do say so myself. in the next couple of scenes, a friend of ruth's informes a family that their daughter has been brainwashed by a guru which is cause for the mother to make a trip herself to india in hopes of bringing the impressionable young woman back to her happy home in australia. the scenes between mum & daughter are witty, intelligient, & very clever indeed i''ll be the first to admit. next, we are introduced to the family of somewhat lovable misfits & we are lead to believe that ruth(kate winslet) is perhaps the most sane one of them all. as you've probably heard, ruth's mother hires a deprogrammer(played brilliantly by mr.keitel) who agrees to try & help the young girl in a remote cabin somewhere in australia. the film is a bit sluggish from that point on although there are some hilarious scenes with ruth & the deprogrammer battling it out verbally. the best scenes are close to the end in which ruth has nearly wrapped poor keitel around her finger. we get to see her dress him in women's clothing, putting on the lipstick, & he allows all this with no resisitance. what i like best about holy smoke is the mere fact you never know exactly what to expect & where all the events will take you. the ideas here are certainly creative & the ending is definately a hoot but this film is far from being the masterpiece campion gave us with the piano back in the early ninities. holy smoke is definately worth a look but you may wish to rent before purchasing. if you do decide to purchase this dvd, look for a reasonable used copy.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of time
Review: I only gave it 1 star because that's the lowest point you can give. This movie is a total waste of time; questionable plot, shallow depiction of Indian faith / culture, lame characters. Only for hardcore Winslet fan.
Rating:
Summary: Holy Cow!
Review: Jane Campion, of "The Piano" fame, directed and co-wrote this film, which I can't neatly categorize as drama, melodrama, comedy, or horror parody. I suspect Campion may have thought she was cranking out a "cult classic" about cults, but the movie is too filled with nonsensical plot holes and character inconsistencies to really grab a mass audience or even a dedicated tribe of a few. I was prompted to rent the DVD after the return of Elizabeth Smart, the young teenage girl from Utah who was alleged to have been kidnapped. Upon her surprising return, there were suddenly rumors of brainwashing and cult activity. Being a child of pop culture, I instantly thought, "Hmmm, isn't HOLY SMOKE sort of about that same thing?" The film does focus on a young, determined woman (Kate Winslet)who leaves her home and family behind to trek to India. Accompanied by a schoolmate, Winslet falls under the spell of a guru. She stays behind to practice her newly acquired faith, and her friend goes back to the Outback to alarm family and friends about Winslet's embracing of all things Asian. One instantly gets the feeling that these are people who are opposed to curry, saris, and meditation on principle. The heroine's family comes across as a ragtag lot of dopers, drinkers, adulterers, asthmatics, bigots, and Bible Belt-ers. They are a sorry group, and Campion exploits their flaws and foibles. Obviously, these are people who should not be judging anyone else's call to God, but they do, and their meddling naturally goes awry. Pooling together their meager resources, they hire a world-famous American deprogrammer. He's embodied by Harvey Keitel, and his performance is best described as fearless and intense.
The relationship between "cult buster" and "cult hostage" walks a fine line between parody and paranoia. I can't believe such treatments are actually utilized--they seem to blur ethical lines and inflame Amnesty International concerns. When all is said and done, this is a movie that exasperates and confounds. It seems to be three separate films stitched together: 1) an earnest treatise on who has the right to judge anyone's religious or ethical allegiance. Aren't we all free to worship and believe as we see fit? 2)a battle of the sexes, very derivative of "Swept Away" or "The Night Porter." 3) a comedy of manners in the style of John Waters's recent efforts or Baz Luhrman's early work. It's a big, ambitious mess. If you really want to see a movie about cults and people who need rescuing, rent "Ticket to Heaven," starring Nick Mancuso, Meg Foster, and Kim Cattrall. If the premise of brainwashing is what grabs you, there's nothing better than "The Manchurian Candidate." (Or, if you just want to laugh at that cinematic device, go for "Zoolander.") The one thing I can say about "Holy Smoke" is the image of Mr. Keitel wearing lipstick and squeezed into a red minidress will haunt me for months to come. I might need a deprogrammer to expel that very surreal and disturbing image from my mind. All I can say to Ms. Campion and company is "Sari, wrong number, honey."
Rating:
Summary: Hot! But not very enjoyable
Review: So Winslet goes to India, gets hooked up in a religious cult, and then her family in Australia want her back. They capture her, but are unable to convince her that her interest in the cult is wrong. So they hire Keitel to "deprogram" her. Only he may turn out to be the one that's nuts. Would have been a fantastic movie, given that Winslet is one of the greatest actresses out there- she has watchability, conviction and sex appeal galore. And you have Keitel- also an incredible actor with the kind of charisma to keep any role interesting. Unfortunately the story wasn't put together well. I never got into Winslet's desire for the cult. In that regard the beginning was too rushed. Also the family was too out there to be believed. I found myself constantly staring at 2 incredible actors moving through a story that felt like a hallucination. But...seeing the two of them together was worth sitting through the film once.
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