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01/01/00
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Holy Smoke! (1999)
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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... [More]
Starring: Kate Winslet, Harvey Keitel, Sophie Lee, Tim Robertson
Director: Jane Campion
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Reviews for Holy Smoke!
Holy Smoke is a fun picture full of vibrant imagery, wacky characters, and carnal aspirations.
01/01/00
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.
01/01/00
Filled with flashy sight gags, overwrought performances, and madly overlapping dialogue.
01/01/00
Top CriticWinslet and Keitel make this a must-view in a season where the scent of Oscar is in the air.
01/01/00
Top CriticHoly Smoke is one of those movies that takes some potentially fascinating ideas and shipwrecks them by poor execution and even worse writing.
01/01/00
Top CriticAs Holy Smoke moves from its early mix of rapture and humor into this more serious, confrontational stage, it runs into trouble.
01/01/00
Top CriticIt's little more than a revisionist version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew without the clever wordplay.
01/01/00
Holy Smoke does journey all over the map in a variety of tones and styles, but Campion is a master director and keeps this under control.
01/01/00
A tightly wound, heady affair that actually comes to seem more deranged as it progresses.
01/01/00
Despite the good performances and Campion's visual reach, her characters are too specific/eccentric to transcend their storyline and make us feel that there's something to be absorbed from the P.J.-Ruth imbroglio.
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Top CriticThe film is brutally uneven, but not without visual flare.
01/01/00
A dreadful mess.
01/01/00
Top CriticJane Campion va en franco descenso en cuanto a calidad y coherencia cinematográfica se refiere
01/01/00
Holy Smoke is unusual and it's smart. Well, insofar as we can figure out.
01/01/00
Campion's seductive flourishes are eye-catching but never gratuitous, and the image of Winslet as a multi-armed goddess is truly ravishing.
01/01/00
Confused and lacking a tangible emotional center, Campion's tale of a sleazy cult deprogrammer and his voluptuous Aussie charge is chock-full of half-baked statements, notions, and scenes...
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Campion, who co-wrote the script with her sister Anna, appears to have spent so much time and energy creating Ruth that she didn't have anything left over for rest of the characters.
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Although the cinematography by Dion Beebe is beautiful, and most of the performances click, Campion never really gets to the point of what she's trying to say. It's all too vague.
01/01/00
Holy Smoke is the ultimate demonstration that Campion isn't nearly as intelligent a director as she thinks she is.
01/01/00
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