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HOLY SMOKE! Send This Review to a Friend
Jane Campion, who directed, wrote the screenplay for "Holy Smoke!," which was showcased at the 1999 New York Film Festival, with her sister Anna Campion. Kate Winslet plays Ruth Barron, an Australian who has succumbed to indoctrination by a guru in India. Her family manages to get her back home and enlists P.J. Waters, an American known as an expert in deprogramming cult victims. Harvey Keitel plays Waters and goes for broke in the role, even by uninhibited Keitel standards.
The action boils down to a grueling contest in the Outback between Waters trying to break Ruth, as one might a wild horse. Naturally, the relationship turns sexual. Ruth is expert at taunting and ultimately seducing her tormentor. He behaves as he shouldn't by succumbing to temptation. Winslet stands starkers before him and asks whether he likes her or her breasts more. I have my own obvious answer.
The maneuverings grow increasingly ridiculous, especially when Ruth puts Waters in touch with his feminine side. Are you ready to see Keitel running around wearing lipstick and a dress and chasing after Winslet like an animal in heat?
The Campion sisters apparently are striving for a metaphor illuminating the battle of the sexes and women emerging from being controlled by men, especially younger women by older men, but "Holy Smoke!" merely succeeds in blowing smoke up our noses or wherever. It is a film so absurd that it nearly makes me nostalgic for Winslet in "Titanic". A Miramax Films release.
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