Cast: Kate Winslet, Harvey Keitel, Pam Grier, Julie Hamilton, Sophie Lee, Daniel Wyllie, Paul Goddard, Tim Robertson
Director: Jane Campion
Producer: Jan Chapman
Screenplay: Anna and Jane Campion
Cinematography: Dion Beebe
Music: Angelo Badalamenti
U.S. Distributor: Miramax Films
Holy Smoke is one of those movies that takes some potentially fascinating ideas and shipwrecks them by poor execution and even worse writing. The most worthwhile aspect of this film is getting to see Kate Winslet in the nude - but that can be achieved by watching the infinitely better Jude. The director, Jane Campion, is probably best known for The Piano. Since that film achieved an outpouring of critical praise, Campion has been on a slow-but-steady slide. Her Portrait of a Lady was not well-received, and the reaction to Holy Smoke is almost guaranteed to dull whatever luster remains on her reputation.
The film begins in a promising enough fashion. The opening credits play a rousing version of the Neal Diamond song "Holly Holy" over a collage of images depicting the spiritual awakening of a young Australian woman, Ruth (Kate Winslet), who is on vacation in Delhi, India. Ruth decides that, instead of returning home, she wants to stay in India and study under the tutelage of her guru. Back in Sydey, her parents (Julie Hamilton and Tim Robertson) are nonplused. Fearing that her daughter has fallen under the influence of a cult, Mom calls in an ace American de-programmer named PJ Waters (Harvey Keitel), who has successfully "exited" nearly 200 cases. He comes armed with a three-step program, and, after, Ruth's parents have lured her back to Australia with a lie about her father being on his death bed, PJ goes to work. He and Ruth end up holed up in a halfway house for three days, supposedly working towards a resolution. Their goal becomes blurred, however, when their interaction turns sexual.
The idea of two people spending several days arguing about faith and spiritual matters offers a potentially rich vein of drama, but that's not where Campion's film goes. Instead, we are presented with a couple of scenes featuring Keitel "exposing" the corrupt nature of Ruth's religion while she spouts off cliches and informs him that he will never destroy her beliefs. The next thing we know, she's cavorting around naked and seducing him. He gives in surprisingly easily, and the two spend most of the rest of their time together in bed. For a while, I thought Ruth had cleverly turned the tables on PJ and was manipulating him, but no such luck. She is exactly what she appears to be - someone who has lost her faith as the result of a sophomoric de-programming. That's when the movie gets really silly, as PJ falls hopelessly in love with Ruth and she responds in kind (even after he punches her in the face - what would a Keitel movie be without some violence?). If Campion's intention is to make a statement about the artificial and twisted nature of this relationship, started when both people are spiritually raw and vulnerable, she undermines herself during the epilogue, which suggests that Ruth and PJ shared a deeply rewarding and mutually satisfying experience.
Ultimately, the real problem with the film is that is consistently fails to make sense. The characters, which are poorly developed at best, act in unconvincing and poorly-motivated ways. Are we really supposed to accept that PJ's double-talk undermines Ruth's deep, abiding sense of faith? Or that PJ, who has gone through this experience on 180 previous occasions, suddenly loses his own moral rudder? Beyond that, the relationship is not credible. I can believe that two lost souls trapped in this situation might seek sexual solace with each other and might even believe they have fallen in love, but Campion fails to get Ruth and PJ to the point where we accept that their relationship could evolve in this manner. It's a shame because Winslet and (to a lesser degree) Keitel give strong performances. In fact, Winslet is good enough that we find ourselves drawn to her character despite the cataclysmic failings of the script. But even the best actress can't do much when she's clutching at straws.
Another misstep on Campion's part is her portrayal of Ruth's family. They're presented as complete morons with no redeeming qualities. Her parents are narrow minded bigots. Her brothers (Daniel Wyllie, Paul Goddard) are the intellectual equivalents of 2-Watt light bulbs. And her sister-in-law (Sophie Lee) is an airheaded sex pot. These five people, and their associated hangers-on, are employed as a means of broad comic relief that is as unwelcome as it is unfunny. Poor Pam Grier, who plays PJ's assistant and part-time lover, Carol, must wonder how she ended up in such a muddled film.
Some have suggested that Campion's aim with Holy Smoke was not to offer a serious psychological study of a cult deprogramming, but to present a thinly-veiled satire. However, even if that was her goal (and there is evidence to indicate that it might have been), the film still doesn't work. There's nothing insightful or incisive about this storyline, nor does it effectively skewer cults, faith, deprogramming, or the motion picture tendency to create "happily ever after romances" in the least likely and most unpalatable of circumstances. While the movie is at times laughable, that has little or nothing to do with the director's intent. Regardless of whether it is being evaluated as a serious or farcical production, Holy Smoke fails miserably. In fact, Campion has fired so wide of the mark that she has shot herself in the foot.
© 1999 James Berardinelli