Film review: 'Hideous Kinky'
For her first screen outing since her grueling "Titanic" experience, Kate Winslet apparently wanted to be as far away from water as possible.
In Marrakech for "Hideous Kinky", based on English novelist Esther Freud's childhood Moroccan adventures with her sister and mother, Winslet looks somewhat parched but pleased.
Part exotic travelogue, part meditative quest for spiritual redemption, Gillies MacKinnon's screen adaptation ultimately, like its characters, spends a little too long wandering aimlessly in the sun.
Despite bright performances and quaint, post-Woodstock clothing and music, the picture is destined for modest art house business.
Odd as it may seem given her previous role, Winslet is believable as the mother of an 8-year-old and 6-year-old caught up in the adventurous hippie spirit of the late 1960s and early '70s. The film and novel's title refers to a game kids play involving the juxtaposition of unrelated but funny-sounding grown-up words.
With the girls' unreliable poet father in London, Julia, pleasantly precocious Bea (Bella Riza) and wide-eyed Lucy (Carrie Mullan) have pitched a tent at the Hotel Moulay in bustling Marrakech.
At the mercy of the erratic Moroccan postal system, Julia struggles to make ends meet between frugal support payments from home by taking an occasional translation job or selling handmade dolls in the teeming marketplace.
Planning to make a pilgrimage to a Sufi temple in Algeria, where she hopes to find spiritual enlightenment, Julia is sidetracked temporarily by the arrival of Bilal (Said Taghmaoui), a charismatic street performer with a shady past.
He becomes part of their household, serving as Bea and Lucy's surrogate dad. But as with all soul-searching journeys, the road to metaphysical salvation is paved with miles of uncertainty.
MacKinnon ("The Playboys") does a good job capturing the pungent flavors of the place and time, but the initial sensation of free-spirited wanderlust becomes stifled by a purposefully languid pace and repetitive shots of serene vistas.
While Winslet does strong work as a woman treading a fine line between independence and selfishness, Riza and Mullan spark the picture with credible portrayals of playful sisters. Riza is particularly good as a child who, more than anything, craves a normal life with all of its mundane trappings.
Credit frequent MacKinnon collaborator cinematographer John de Borman with indelible visuals that effectively draw the viewer into the exotic terrain. You'll swear you can feel the sand between your toes.
HIDEOUS KINKY
Stratosphere Entertainment
Director: Gillies MacKinnon
Screenwriter: Billy MacKinnon
Based on the novel by: Esther Freud
Producer: Ann Scott
Executive producers: Simon Relph, Mark Shivas
Director of photography: John de Borman
Production designers: Louise Marzaroli, Pierre Gompertz
Editor: Pia Di Ciaula
Costume designer: Kate Carin
Music: John Keane
Casting: Susie Figgis
Color/stereo
Cast:
Julia: Kate Winslet
Bilal: Said Taghmaoui
Bea: Bella Riza
Lucy: Carrie Mullan
Santoni: Pierre Clementi
Charlotte: Abigail Cruttenden
Ben Said: Ahmed Boulane
Eva: Sira Stampe
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
In Marrakech for "Hideous Kinky", based on English novelist Esther Freud's childhood Moroccan adventures with her sister and mother, Winslet looks somewhat parched but pleased.
Part exotic travelogue, part meditative quest for spiritual redemption, Gillies MacKinnon's screen adaptation ultimately, like its characters, spends a little too long wandering aimlessly in the sun.
Despite bright performances and quaint, post-Woodstock clothing and music, the picture is destined for modest art house business.
Odd as it may seem given her previous role, Winslet is believable as the mother of an 8-year-old and 6-year-old caught up in the adventurous hippie spirit of the late 1960s and early '70s. The film and novel's title refers to a game kids play involving the juxtaposition of unrelated but funny-sounding grown-up words.
With the girls' unreliable poet father in London, Julia, pleasantly precocious Bea (Bella Riza) and wide-eyed Lucy (Carrie Mullan) have pitched a tent at the Hotel Moulay in bustling Marrakech.
At the mercy of the erratic Moroccan postal system, Julia struggles to make ends meet between frugal support payments from home by taking an occasional translation job or selling handmade dolls in the teeming marketplace.
Planning to make a pilgrimage to a Sufi temple in Algeria, where she hopes to find spiritual enlightenment, Julia is sidetracked temporarily by the arrival of Bilal (Said Taghmaoui), a charismatic street performer with a shady past.
He becomes part of their household, serving as Bea and Lucy's surrogate dad. But as with all soul-searching journeys, the road to metaphysical salvation is paved with miles of uncertainty.
MacKinnon ("The Playboys") does a good job capturing the pungent flavors of the place and time, but the initial sensation of free-spirited wanderlust becomes stifled by a purposefully languid pace and repetitive shots of serene vistas.
While Winslet does strong work as a woman treading a fine line between independence and selfishness, Riza and Mullan spark the picture with credible portrayals of playful sisters. Riza is particularly good as a child who, more than anything, craves a normal life with all of its mundane trappings.
Credit frequent MacKinnon collaborator cinematographer John de Borman with indelible visuals that effectively draw the viewer into the exotic terrain. You'll swear you can feel the sand between your toes.
HIDEOUS KINKY
Stratosphere Entertainment
Director: Gillies MacKinnon
Screenwriter: Billy MacKinnon
Based on the novel by: Esther Freud
Producer: Ann Scott
Executive producers: Simon Relph, Mark Shivas
Director of photography: John de Borman
Production designers: Louise Marzaroli, Pierre Gompertz
Editor: Pia Di Ciaula
Costume designer: Kate Carin
Music: John Keane
Casting: Susie Figgis
Color/stereo
Cast:
Julia: Kate Winslet
Bilal: Said Taghmaoui
Bea: Bella Riza
Lucy: Carrie Mullan
Santoni: Pierre Clementi
Charlotte: Abigail Cruttenden
Ben Said: Ahmed Boulane
Eva: Sira Stampe
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 4/16/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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