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Susan Granger's review of "HOLY SMOKE" (Miramax Films)
With last year's Hideous Kinky and now Holy Smoke, Kate Winslet seems determined to reach beyond her classic Titanic heroine. In this psychosexual drama, Kate plays Ruth Barron, a young, vulnerable Australian tourist in India who succumbs to the spiritual "enlightenment" of a charismatic guru. Ruth thinks she's found salvation and transcended into bliss, but her horrified parents are sure she's lost her mind. So they lure her back home to a Sydney suburb and hire an American "cult exit counselor," P.J. Waters, played by Harvey Keitel, to deprogram her. Dressed in black from his dyed hair to shiny cowboy boots, the tyrannical P.J. is a jaded, slick, persuasive brain-washer who demands to be left alone with sari-clad Ruth in an abandoned shack in the Outback for three days. There, they play brutal mind-games while exploring their carnal lust, engaging in a fierce battle of wills and, oddly, reverse roles. Ruth uses her voluptuous body to sexually dominate and mentally control P.J., dressing him in drag and then savagely humiliating him, leaving him whimpering. Australian writer/director Jane Campion (The Portrait of a Lady, The Piano, Sweetie) collaborated on the script with her sister, Anna Campion (Loaded) and, despite a few moments of comic relief from Ruth's grotesque family of wackos, they're heavily into the provocative issues of religion, sex and power. Brooding tough guy Harvey Keitel is simply overmatched by willful, outspoken Kate Winslet. You know from the beginning that he doesn't stand a chance against her, particularly when cinematographer Dion Beebe exquisitely bathes her nude body in sensual, shimmering light. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, Holy Smoke is a bizarre 4, presenting a frustrating battle of the sexes that seems unfairly matched.
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