Holy Smoke

1999

Action / Comedy / Drama

40
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 47% · 81 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 47% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 5.9/10 10 16468 16.5K

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Plot summary

While on a journey of discovery in exotic India, beautiful young Ruth Barron falls under the influence of a charismatic religious guru. Her desperate parents then hire PJ Waters, a macho cult de-programmer who confronts Ruth in a remote desert hideaway. But PJ quickly learns that he's met his match in the sexy, intelligent and iron-willed Ruth.

Director

Top cast

Kate Winslet as Ruth
Harvey Keitel as PJ Waters
Tamsin Carroll as Jodie
Pam Grier as Carol
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU 720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
1.03 GB
1280*694
English 2.0
R
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23.976 fps
1 hr 54 min
Seeds 5
1.9 GB
1920*1040
English 2.0
R
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 54 min
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1.02 GB
1280*720
English 2.0
R
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 54 min
Seeds 5
2.11 GB
1904*1072
English 5.1
R
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 54 min
Seeds 5

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Wuchak 6 / 10

**_The power of a whoa-man to turn even

**_The power of a whoa-man to turn even the most hardened male into a loaf of bread_** A young woman from Sydney (Kate Winslet) becomes a follower of a guru in Delhi, so her family hires a top deprogrammer (Harvey Keitel) to liberate her from the cult’s brainwashing, which is carried out at an isolated cabin in the Outback. "Holy Smoke" (1999) is similar to “The Piano” from six years prior (also starring Keitel), which isn’t surprising since it was made by the same writer/director. Both are adult-oriented drama/romances, but this one is set in the modern day and is just as much a quirky comedy. There are numerous highlights, including the charisma of the two stars, Kate’s voluptuousness (she was 22 during shooting, almost 23), the breathtaking scenery, the humor in which every Australian is goofy or eccentric, the beauty of Sophie Lee (Yvonne), insights on male/female relationships and the power of a beautiful woman. Unfortunately, I found the last act tedious; it needed reworked to make it more compelling. Also, are we to seriously believe that the woman from the first act, who swoons over a charismatic cult-leader in a patriarchal society, is the same one in the last act? _Why Sure!_ Lastly, the film flirts with interesting commentary on serious cult indoctrination, such as the Manson family, Koresh’s Branch Davidians and Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple, yet discards it for: Cult brainwashing, what cult brainwashing? I suppose the Campion sisters were shooting for amusing irony. The movie runs 1 hour, 55 minutes, and was shot in Sydney, Australia, and 1000 miles west in Hawker, Finders Ranges (the Outback scenes), which is located in southeast South Australia. The Indian sequences were done in New Delhi and Pushkar in north-central India. GRADE: B-
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Reviewed by Pteromysvolans 7 / 10

Very good subject but the movie lacks depth

The interesting and important themes dealt with make this movie well worth watching.

First you think that it will be a simple educational movie about cult addiction and recovery - but then the plot starts to get complicated. Maybe even a bit too complicated, because the end part of the movie feels rather artificial.

The story tells about very important and even universal things: meaning of life, feelings of emptiness, relationships of leaders and their pupils, human nature, need of love. But though those themes are thought provoking, the movie itself lacks a lot as a movie. I cannot help thinking that someone could have made this into a much better movie (shouldn't be the fault of the makers though, many of them have had good artistic achievements).

The persons lack enough depth. The truly complicated nature of people is not - after all - portraited realistically enough in this movie. Because of that you never start to take the movie seriously enough despite the many dead serious themes dealt with.

Very difficult movie to rate. In purely artistic sense, the movie: acting, directing, filming etc. is worth maybe 6/10, but because of the important thought provoking subject, I give it a much better 8/10.

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