Holy Smoke (2000)

Ruth Barron (Kate Winslet) goes to India and falls under guru Baba. Her friends return home to warn her parents in Sydney. Her mother Miriam goes to Delhi to find her. Miriam is overwhelmed and falls sick. Ruth returns to Australia with her bedridden mother. The parents hire exit counselor PJ Waters (Harvey Keitel) and Ruth is confronted with an intervention. She's brought to a remote farm after being tricked about her father on his death bed.I love Julie Hamilton as the mother. The first act is a lot of wacky backwards Aussie family. When it's only Keitel and Winslet, the movie takes a different tone and becomes something else. It's not bad but the fun is gone. The mano a mano battle is intriguing but I feel a little imprisoned by it. The compelling mother daughter relationship gets sidelined. This movie goes down a weird rabbit-hole and it doesn't necessarily work but it is interesting.

Jane Campion's "Holy Smoke" stars Kate Winslet as Ruth Barron, a young Australian who travels to India and joins a religions cult. Worried, Ruth's parents hire P.J Waters (Harvey Keitel), an American exit counsellor and cult expert. Waters isolates Ruth in a remote cabin and successfully "deprograms" her.The film's another of Campion's feminist parables. Burnt by several relationships with men, resentful of her father's infidelities and tired of being sexually objectified, Ruth runs away and latches onto a religious guru. This guru, she believes, wants nothing from her. The reality is that the guru's cult is as exploitative, patriarchal and demanding as the outside world, but Ruth doesn't see this. Her blinders are up, denial is sweet and she wholeheartedly believes that the cult does nothing but profess and practise absolute, unconditional love.Waters, meanwhile, is everything Ruth finds abhorrent. He's a man's man, Campion painting him as a figure of masculine excess, with cowboy boots, a cocksure swagger and a bucket full of charm. Ruth thinks he's the devil, speaking in forked tongues and sent by Satan to steal her away from God's sweet embrace. When the duo consign themselves to a cabin in the wilderness, a bizarre battle of the sexes then begins. Waters breaks Ruth down, rebuilds her into a good, docile, obedient little woman and has sex with her. He conforms to Ruth's caricatural vision of men; men want nothing but control, to deny a woman's desires. Ruth then fights back. She belittles Waters, attacks his age, his masculinity, undermines his machismo, and goes so far as to dress him up in lipstick, mascara, high-heels and a dress. When the battle's over, women have been masculinzied, men feminized, a free-for-all in which gender codes are now ripe for appropriation by all. Waters is humbled and Ruth likewise, the latter learning that men can genuinely love, genuinely be hurt (Waters was sexually abused by a man), genuinely care and genuinely protect. Waters then writes the words "be kind" on Ruth's forehead, encapsulating the film's final, quasi-religious message: transcend gender stereotypes and love all. The film then ends with both Ruth and Waters becoming rounded, 21st century post-feminists. He's married to blaxploitation actress Pam Grier, symbolically chosen by Campion to represent Waters' "relinguishing of control" (he's now both breadwinner and stay at home house wife, a baby strapped to his chest), whilst Ruth's returned to India to do "good work" for a charity (with a new man whom she's allowed to get close).The film's very much a prequel to Campion's underrated "In The Cut". Its plot is rather original, and it sports exquisite cinematography by Dion Beebe ("Collaeral", "Miami Vice", "In The Cut"). Unfortunately the film also frequently missteps with moments of humour (better to treat the material as straight drama), is preoccupied with gender issues which are virtually meaningless when ripped free from the context of class, power and economics, and its treatment of new religious movements and exit counselling will no doubt offend persons knowledgeable of these fields (exit counsellors aren't remotely like Waters, would never do anything he does here). The film also wastes the opportunity to explore a far more interesting theme; when you deprogram a subject, what do you substitute in the absence of religion? Is it ethical to substitute anything? This is a spiritual as well as political problem. Indeed, many ex cult members, when deprogrammed, lapse into depression and self-destruction, unlike Ruth, who recovers immediately.8/10 – Interesting idea, undermined by some moments of comedy and some obvious, on-the-nose writing. Campion doesn't know how to be subtle. Worth one viewing.

In "Holy Smoke",we are shown how affluent western world perceives India especially through its innumerable religions.Academy award nominee New Zealand director Jane Campion steers her film by showcasing a harum- scarum Australian family whose members make all possible attempts to persuade one of their ilk to disown an Indian religious sect leader.Her film is an attempt to unravel countless affable mysteries surrounding numerous Indian religious men and women and their emotional, intellectual or spiritual ramifications on prosperous westerners.Much of the film centers around a dysfunctional middle class Australian family which is facing tough times.Jane Campion errs occasionally as her film contains some less developed themes involving spiritual aspects versus material comfort and intricacies of mind over body.However,all serious viewers can vouchsafe a good viewing experience as perfect emotional as well as carnal chemistry between Harvey Keitel and Kate Winslet is a joy to behold.A weak and an absolutely terrible ending are some of this film's major thorns.Holy Smoke:one of those rare films where audiences will have tough time to make out how and when a hunter becomes a hunted target ? Film critic/French translator/interpreter Lalit Rao wishes to make a brief yet necessary mention about some of his fiends involved with shooting of "Holy Smoke" in India : a) Famous theater activist Rajneesh Bisht (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, amateur theater group) and veteran media person Madame Uma Da Cunha.

OK. I have to admit I am not the biggest Campion fan. However, I do like Kietel in some films. But Holy smoke is putrid. I really haven't seen a film that bad for a while... and I watched the 1994 remake of Angels in the outfield this week! First of all the cult she is in does not seem that bad. But the grouse caricaturing of cults and religion in general is horrendous. The African-American woman singing the lords pray seems particular contrived. It is just a very low-brow look at cults and religion. Now for the worst part. As others have previously said Kaitel and Winslet's characters are horrible. They are caricature's of caricatures. Kate Winslet pees her pants in a very distasteful scene. Oh the supporting cast. They must be the Campion's sisters in-laws or something. How the hades they ever got into this film I do not know. The token homosexual brothers were actually insulting. I do not know why her homosexual brother did not support her quest for spiritual happiness since he also would have felt alienation at one point in his life. Just please don't watch this film. It is far below par.