HOLY SMOKE A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **
Harvey Keitel in a dress! The bizarre image of him in drag may be worth the price of admission for some filmgoers. Others may demand a bit more for their entertainment dollar. This latter group will probably feel cheated by HOLY SMOKE, a mess of a movie by Jane Campion (THE PIANO). Part quirky Australian comedy and part film about cult deprogramming, the script by Anna and Jane Campion is neither funny nor credible.
With the speed of instant coffee, the show's central character, an Australian named Ruth (Kate Winslet), becomes a cult member. With literally a single touch from a guru in India, she is converted. Deprogramming in the film is done by an American expert, PJ Waters (Keitel), who can restore a person's beliefs in a standard three day ritual. His three-day miracle cure, he claims, has been successfully executed on 187 people with only a 3.1% recidivism rate. ("Day one: Insult her, get her attention, win her respect," he gives as the first part of his cookbook recipe.)
This infuriatingly short time for religious conversion and rejection is made even less believable by Winslet's flighty and flimsy acting. Only in her erotic scenes is she ever the least bit convincing. To be fair, though, she is forced to say some pretty ridiculous lines. ("What do you think of me?" Ruth asks PJ as a taunt. "Do you like my personality or my breasts best?" Given her brat of a demeanor in the story, PJ doesn't take long to decide his answer.)
Dressed totally in black from his sunglasses to his cowboy boots, Keitel makes a stunning impression. But, asked to give an intellectual performance devoid of much emotional impact, he's embarrassingly miscast. Still, Keitel is such a good actor than he manages to make the part more interesting than it has any right to be.
The movie is filled with an array of eccentric characters. Typical of these is the young woman who writes herself fake love letters, which makes her boyfriend jealous. She's a twit who makes love to her boyfriend while looking at the pictures of movies stars and calling out their names in ecstasy, "Oh Brad [Pitt]!" She's also inclined to ask a guy during sex if he has a Web site.
None of these subplots have much to do with the story. Campion treats the movie like a mixed salad, throwing in every ingredient in her kitchen in the hopes of spicing it up. Rather than enhancing, the result is sensory overload. Nothing seems to blend even if some of the parts are mildly tasty.
Although the movie starts off seriously, it slowly dissolves into pure kitsch. And after a semi-satisfactory ending, an unnecessary epilogue is tacked on that blunts the show's modest impact, making an already unsatisfactory film even more so.
HOLY SMOKE runs 1:54. It is rated R for strong sexuality and language and would be acceptable for high school students.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews