Holy Smoke

This movie is aptly titled, a major smoke and mirrors job with no real meaning and no real meat. Winslet's performance isn't bad, and Keitel is decent in a completely unconvincing characterization. Its difficult to believe a man who has allegedly deprogrammed 189 previous 'clients', then suddenly ends up in Australia without his girlfriend and drops his pants for anything female, including the girl he's being paid $10K to "help". This movie could have worked, but its slow and ponderous right up until the sexual congress convenes, and then it only becomes more preposterous. I'm not sure what sort of strange demons Jane Campion has in her closet, but they aren't doing a very good job of guiding her art. Just like "The Piano", this movie completely lost me and comes off as some sort of indecipherable post-feminist statement.

The supporting cast is awful, which might not be their fault, but the fact that they are all cast as wooden, emotionally immature, alcoholic Australians. If I were from down-under, I'd be offended by the stereotypical portrayals. The end of the movie goes from rediculous to nice and tidy with a pretty bow on top...very weak. Essentially, this movie is a vehicle to get Kate Winslet naked and Harvey Kietel in a dress, so its probably not going to do too badly at the box office. But, if you want to see anything deeper than a beautiful actress nude and a decent actor cross-dressing, avoid "Holy Smoke".