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Movies / On DVD / Holy Smoke!
Holy Smoke!

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Holy Smoke! (1999)

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44 %
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Reviews Counted:73

Fresh:32

Rotten:41

Average Rating:5.6/10

Consensus: Superb performances hindered by weak script and incoherent story.

Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: In this wildly inventive film from director Jane Campion (THE PIANO), Kate Winslet stars as Ruth, a headstrong Australian woman determined to get back to India in time to join a group marriage to... In this wildly inventive film from director Jane Campion (THE PIANO), Kate Winslet stars as Ruth, a headstrong Australian woman determined to get back to India in time to join a group marriage to her guru. Her family, hoping to break the cult leader's psychic grip on Ruth, hires P.J. (Harvey Keitel), a macho American deprogramming expert teetering on the brink of a nervous breakdown. A no-holds-barred battle of the psyches, cultures, and sexes ensues as P.J. and Ruth fight, connive, and eventually fall into bed together in what becomes a mutual search for individual truth. The strong performances of the two stars, a hilariously offbeat script (cowritten by Campion and her sister, Anna), and a wealth of delicious, texture-enhancing flourishes (including some surreal bits of computer animation, Pam Grier's work in a small role as P.J.'s partner, and a wild opening sequence set to Neil Diamond's "Holly Holy") combine to make HOLY SMOKE! a weird, winning blend of goofy comedy and hallucinatory mysticism. [More]

Starring: Kate Winslet, Harvey Keitel, Sophie Lee, Tim Robertson

Starring: Kate Winslet, Harvey Keitel, Sophie Lee, Tim Robertson, Pam Grier, Dan Wyllie

Director: Jane Campion

Director: Jane Campion
Screenwriter: Anna Campion, Jane Campion
Producer: Jan Chapman
Composer: Angelo Badalamenti

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Holy Smoke!

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Derek Adams
Derek Adams
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
12/12/02
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
12/10/01
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

It is an immense, emotional, engrossing film that nevertheless wears its brilliance casually.

Full Review Source: Sight and Sound | comment Comment
04/17/01
Stella Bruzzi
Stella Bruzzi
Sight and Sound

Here is a movie that promises to be a drama about two passionate people waging intellectual war on each other, but disintegrates into a bizarre mixture of Ticket to Heaven, Last Tango in Paris, Klute and Coneheads.

Full Review Source: UK Critic | comment Comment
01/01/00
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
UK Critic

A profoundly generous treatise on how men and women misunderstand and torment one another.

Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | comment Comment
08/27/09
Tim Brayton
Tim Brayton
Antagony & Ecstasy
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
06/17/08
David Rooney
David Rooney
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Jane Campion is busily dismantling gender myths that few people take seriously any more.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
09/17/07
Rob Gonsalves
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
04/27/07
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer

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Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

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Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
07/21/05
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
04/09/05
Robin Clifford
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews
N/R

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Full Review Source: Nation | comment Comment
03/03/05
Stuart Klawans
Stuart Klawans
Nation

It's too bad that such an artist of such obvious ambition and power seems inclined to dismiss the greater part of humanity...

Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | comment Comment
01/27/05
Philip Martin
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Palo Alto Weekly | comment Comment
05/14/03
Jeanne Aufmuth
Jeanne Aufmuth
Palo Alto Weekly

Filmmaker Jane Campion has displayed genius, passion, insight, and self-indulgence in her work. Now, she reveals a sense of humor.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/08/02
Ron Wells
Ron Wells
Film Threat

[A] blithering mess of a story.

Full Review Source: Cincinnati Enquirer | comment Comment
10/15/02
Margaret A. McGurk
Margaret A. McGurk
Cincinnati Enquirer

At once hilarious and serious, cruel and tender, and bristling with vitality, Holy Smoke is the right movie for the millennium, envisioning new possibilities in the way people view and relate to one another.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
08/15/02
Kevin Thomas
Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
06/18/02
Jay Carr
Jay Carr
Boston Globe

Nice try, but there's not a laugh in sight.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
04/05/02
Rick Groen
Rick Groen
Globe and Mail
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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