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HIDEOUS KINKY Send This Review to a Friend
At least this gets Kate Winslet off the bow of the Titanic. She takes a stab at a more meaningful role, but has attached herself to a film that also sinks. There's some lovely location cinematography by John de Borman, but the story scripted by Billy MacKinnon from Esther Freud's novel, is awash in pretension and claptrap about an estranged wife looking for the meaning of life while schlepping her two daughters, one six, the other eight, around Morocco.
It's the early 1970s and Julia (Winslet) leaves London for her grand soul-searching adventure. She has little money, but she has what passes for courage--or is it just plain self-indulgence? In Marrakesh she meets Bilal, played well enough by Said Taghmaoui, and a bond develops between them. There's no point in detailing the string of exotic or worrisome events in which Julia and her children are caught up. They go on and on interminably until Julia finally…well, see the film for yourself if you must.
Some may view all of this differently, but for me the film is too precious by far, although ably directed by Gillies MacKinnon ("Generation"), brother of the screenwriter. Oh yes, the "Hideous Kinky" title has no significance other than referring to a word game that the children play. There's nothing hideous and nothing kinky. Either would help. A Stratosphere Entertainment release.
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