Review of Holy Smoke

I was blown away by this movie. There can't be a more perfect movie experience. You laugh, you cry, you are carried away.

Kate Winslet stars as a seeker after the truth. She thinks that she finds something meaningful with an Indian guru. Her white trash Ausie family thinks otherwise, and they kidnap her to have her deprogrammed by the number one U.S. deprogrammer, played by Harvey Keitel. This leads to a conflict in which each character explores, changes, figures out what he or she is looking for, or at least figures out what to next in their lives to fulfill them.

This is a movie with great sparks of humor, some wonderful laughs, some wonderful cinematography including some visual treats involving a third eye, or a lighted match. Just when you think the movie will get bogged down into a heavy discussion, it is lifted up by some surprise plot twist, or by characters going further than you dared thought they would go.

It carries you along, and you don't want it to end. After you think it has ended, there is a very satisfying coda, so that you know where the characters wound up after the transforming events of this film.

This is a great great film.