"boz"

Well, I saw the preview for this film in London and I was most intrigued, for I had previously read the novel (also written by director Jane Campion along with her sister Anna). The book was enjoyable enough to read, although there are some places where there is a certain lack of style, making you occasionally wonder why such a book was written.

However, from seeing the movie it was fairly obvious the book was mainly written for the film adaptation as a lot of the story's aspects work much better on screen, and so it is consequently much better as a film.

From the film's superbly portrayed credits, one can tell that this picture has a certain unique quality absent from mainstream cinema. It begins with a 20-year-old Australian Ruth Barron (Kate Winslet) and her time in India as a member of a religious sect led by a Guru, "Baba". Her deeply worried family back in Australia send her mother (Julie Hamilton) to find her in India, only to unsuccessfully attempt to bring her back to Australia under the false news that Ruth's father (Tim Robertson) is ill and dying. The only reason why Ruth returns is due to her mother having a severe asthma attack and her having to be taken back home in medical care on a plane. Once arrived, Ruth begins to settle in to her old family, but only temporarily. Soon she discovers her father's true condition, and that her family simply lured her to Australia in order to banish her from the Indian cult. What's more, the family have payed a large sum of money to a cult de-programmer from the United States called PJ Waters (Harvey Keitel). His plan is to mentally break down Ruth in order for her to lose her faith in the sect. He is given some time alone with her in a hut in the middle of the desert, it's only then when things begin to really get out of hand...

"Holy Smoke" is a darkly comic tale with some great acting, its tragi-comic style working very well. Several aspects of the book are much improved here.

The film brings out the more humorous side of the events. The most comic part of the film is Ruth's Australian working class family, hilariously and mercilessly portrayed as ignorant half-wits. Many of the film's dialogue is a lot funnier on film compared to the book because of the crass Australian accent (absent from the book) behind it. This illustrated by one excellent line near the beginning of the film in which a man introduces the idea of de-programming to Ruth's family and in the middle of his speech he talks about how he can wake up and say to himself every morning, "I'm fat, mate." Also, Harvey Keitel's cool, relaxed American character PJ Waters contrasts very well with the Australian backdrop, one of my favourite lines of the film being when he wakes up next to Ruth having reluctantly slept with her the previous night. His voice-over heralds the new morning with the words, "Day Three.....S***!" But not all of the film is comic; indeed, there are some scenes in the picture which are almost harrowing, one of the most memorable scenes being that of Kate Winslet wondering naked across the desert in the middle of the night, totally degraded and brainwashed, eventually urinating in front of the shocked PJ.

The film is a picture that simply has to be seen by anyone who has a reasonably good sense of black humour. There are outstanding performances from Keitel and Winslet, and a strong supporting cast, with some good performances from Sophie Lee as Ruth's sister and Pam Grier in her brief appearance as PJ's girlfriend. The soundtrack is also impressive, with a wonderful laid-back style. Overall, the film's blending with pathos and humour makes it very memorable and affective. One to watch!

I liked this film. I recall purchasing the Esther Freud novel a few years ago and I honestly must say that reading it was a pretty tedious affair; even for a novel, its pace was sometimes excruciatingly slow and its adequate use of character development greatly marred by the story's very weak plot. When I heard that director Gillies Mackinnon was producing a film adaptation of Hideous Kinky I had very large doubts. From reading the first few pages of the book, you could tell that this was not something that could be adapted to screen with ease.

Hideous Kinky (its mysterious title derived from the two girls' favourite words) is a semi-autobiographical story by Esther Freud, concerning her time in Morocco during the early seventies. Julia (Kate Winslet) and her two daughters Bea (Bella Riza) and Lucy (Carrie Mullan) have left London and Julia's husband (a character that is often talked of but intriguingly never seen) in order to move to Africa, living an unstable life in the north of Morocco. Soon Julia meets Bilal al Hamal (Said Taghmaoui), a poor man who works as a public entertainer and acrobat, with whom she soon falls in love. Life seems reasonably stable but very depressing and uncomfortable, and Julia's various attempts to find work are all flawed, forcing her to move and so leave Bilal and his newly found occupation behind. She attempts to become a Sufi in a Muslim monastery. However, upon her return she discovers that her eldest daughter has gone missing from the apparently reliable company of Santoni (Pierre Clementi) during her travels. She finds her in a convent school, later discovering that she is severely ill. Upon her recovery, the returned Bilal manages to sell a stolen item and therefore buy tickets for the family back to London in order for Bea to be treated properly.

The film is handled with masterful style, and is often a great improvement on the novel. Many scenes are cut shorter and sometimes deleted (as they should be with a film adaptation), the faster pace therefore rendering the plot more interesting. The visually clever and sometimes awe-inspiring touches that occur in the film throughout also add depth, as does the film's music, which effectively blends the traditional hippie atmosphere of the time with the country's hypnotic rural rhythms. What's more, the performances are first-rate all round, especially the two young actresses Bella Riza and Carrie Mulan (the film's real stars), playing the two daughters aged 6 and 8, Riza arguably the weaker of the two, but in no way discredited. The star presence, Kate Winslet, complete with long hair, bracelets and the usual hippie gear, makes you wonder at the fact that this was almost instantly filmed after the box-office smash, "Titanic," the contrast (especially in appearance) from the previous film is just one of the aspects of this film that illustrates how good an actress she is. Said Taghmauoi plays Bilal, his appearance is a little briefer than the other three characters. His deliverance of lines may be a little weak at times but his character and its background allows us to let it pass. Good supporting roles also from the likes of Abigail Cruttenden and Pierre Clementi.

Some may complain of the film's occasionally tedious sentimentality, but this picture gives us a pleasant rest from the usual Hollywood film full of unnecessarily foul language, gratuitous sex and heavy gore. Simply enjoy a wonderful film of style that deserves more recognition.

Well, I've just seen "Analyze This" at the cinema. This film seemed an amusing story judging from the trailer. Quite a good idea, Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal could make a great double act!

Ben Sobol (Crystal) is a psychiatrist who lives a stable life with his teenage son and is soon to be married to retired TV news reporter Laura MacNamara (Lisa Kudrow). However, after a brief and purely accidental encounter with a member of the mafia "Jelly" (Joe Viterelli, excellent), he is soon dragged into meeting the country's most renowned Mafia boss Paul Vitti (DeNiro), who is currently experiencing problems in his job. He begins to soften up a little, has frequent panic attacks and has difficulties in his profoundly immoral sex life. He needs help from a "head doctor," a psychiatrist, i.e. Mr Sobol. Ben Sobol soon has his life invaded by the mafia, even during his vacation, eventually his wedding is ruined by Vitti and his men after a little bit of violence. His relationship with the mafia boss is now colder than ever and after a few mishaps and a second unsuccessful attempt at his marriage, Sobol ends up being Vitti's "consigliere" at a very important and highly dangerous secret meeting between the country's leading mafia families, led by rival Primo Sindone (Chazz Palminteri).

The film is very funny in parts but occasionally there are places in the film that become somewhat tedious. The idea is a very clever twist but not one that could easily be stretched out over a period of over 100 minutes adequately, and even the masterful skill of Harold Ramis (director of the hilariously funny "Groundhog Day") cannot hide the fact from us, resulting in an occasional sense of flatness in the film. The performances are reasonably good, the best of them being that of Billy Crystal, although some of his lines in the film's major final scene are a little similar to the film, "Mickey Blue Eyes," which was released not long before. Robert DeNiro is also quite enjoyable to watch, though some of his crying scenes seem a little awkward. Other performances from Lisa Kudrow and Chazz Palminteri are also done well, though neither of the latter two are featured as much as I thought they should have been.

So, see this film expecting an enjoyable black comedy, though don't set your hopes too high, or you might just be a little disappointed.