Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

leplatypus Well, I felt the first trauma at screen for "Wadja", then it reappears with "Baby Call", then "Daisy Diamond" and now with this movie. Thus, my panic button isn't bloody monsters, slashers or creatures but only a single mum with her kid. As i met this situation in real, maybe that's the explanation.As this movie shows, in such a family, the mother is so obsessed that even if she loves truly her kid, she doesn't see him also. At the end, due to his erratic mother, kid being kid, he is put in danger and it's very painful to share this moments.Here, it's indeed the case: Kate is in search of meaning, of truth and she thinks that the answer lies with Sufism. So it's a trip from England to Morocco with her two daughters and as money is the blood and fuel that makes the world spins, without any, life becomes difficult. In a way, it has the same flavors that Coelho's novel "the Alchimist", mixing desert, spirituality...At first, the movie is a bit annoying as nothing really happens. But, surely, the movie gains intensity as the family takes trips, meet friends and the magical exoticism of Morocco comes inside you: As i went there once, there's truly a wonderful light and you can see it shining here. But you'll notice also that this country has one of the most colored cultures in the world and that it's also a very inegalitarian one as the gap between poor and riches is huge.Still very young for this movie and a mother to be, Kate is however very maternal and really cares for her daughters: she never shouts at them even as they talk straight. But it's her daughters that steal the spotlight: they are funny, intelligent, and ready to grasp the world. The bond between her is great as they could pass for real sisters.At the end, it's not a surprise that this movie is dates from 1998: today, I don't think that a self-discovery journey of a western family into the Arabic world would be produced so that's another reason to not miss this one.

James Hitchcock My DVD of "Hideous Kinky", originally given away free with a Sunday newspaper, had been gathering dust on my shelves for some time when I decided to watch it for the sole reason that I had just returned from a holiday in Marrakesh, where the film is set. The action takes place in the early seventies, a time when the city was an essential stop on the hippie trail, largely because of the easy availability of drugs. (It was doubtless this reputation that was responsible for the Crosby Stills and Nash hit "Marrakesh Express", the railway systems of North Africa not normally being regarded as a major source of inspiration for songwriters).There were, however, some in the hippie community whose interest in the city was less pharmaceutical than spiritual, this being a period of great interest in alternative forms of religion. Just as some young Westerners travelled to India or the Far East to sit at the feet of a guru, so Julia, the main character in the film, has been drawn to Morocco by her interest in the mystical Islamic Sufi tradition. She is a young Englishwoman who has travelled to Marrakesh with her two young daughters Bea and Lucy. She has formed a relationship with a young Moroccan, but has no job, and her only sources of income are the maintenance cheques she receives at irregular intervals from the estranged boyfriend who is the father of her children.The film has two strengths. One is its vivid photography, which well captures the brilliant light and colours of Marrakesh (a fascinating if exhausting place to visit). The other is the charm and naturalness of the two young actresses who play Bea and Lucy. The two girls are carefully distinguished; Lucy is happy with her life in Morocco, whereas Bea, the elder, wants nothing more than to return to a "normal" life in London. (The odd title "Hideous Kinky" is a meaningless phrase invented by the two girls as part of a children's game).The film does not, however, have much else going for it. Morocco seems to have a strange effect on European filmmakers; I was reminded of Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Sheltering Sky", another beautifully photographed but lifeless film set in the same country. "Hideous Kinky" is not quite as bad as Bertolucci's mammoth epic of tedium (for a start it is considerably shorter), but it is still dull and uninteresting. One reviewer describes it as "refreshingly free of a rigorous story line", which he evidently intended as praise but which struck me as a euphemism for "having nowhere to go and nothing to say". Kate Winslet could do little with the character of Julia, who came across as a rather unattractive personality. It is ironical that someone so intent on the "annihilation of the ego" (the goal of Sufism) should be so egotistical; she is so obsessed with her own spiritual journey that she neglects her children. The film, however, misses the opportunity to explore the ironies and contradictions in the hippie shopping-cart attitude to religion.Following the immense success of "Titanic", Winslet was in the enviable position of being able to choose just about any role she wanted. A small-scale, low-budget European art film like "Hideous Kinky" was therefore a strange career move, but doubtless Winslet wanted to prove to the world and to herself that, despite having played the leading role in a huge blockbuster, she was still a quirky free spirit. (Another egotistical way of annihilating one's ego?) Watching the film, however, I was reminded of that quote from Ken Loach's "Poor Cow", immortalising a dull West London suburb:- "When Tom was in work the world was our oyster. And we chose Ruislip".In 1998, the world was Kate Winslet's oyster. And she chose the cinematic equivalent of Ruislip. 4/10

nothanksreally Any movie that Kate W appears in, is a movie I want to watch. I just adore watching her face....Kate is a Hollywood superstar, yet she comes across as "real".But anyway. I really did enjoy this movie. Life is a search for something and it was fascinating to watch a young woman go to such lengths to find her truth. Her kids gained much from being "dragged" along, but who in their right mind would risk putting their children in such potential harms way?I've traveled a lot and there is nothing as exciting as being in an exotic place, in a strange culture - the hint of danger and then the exhilaration when you make it out. Watching this move resonated.Morocco was indeed portrayed as a fascinating, beautiful place to visit. I'd wonder these days would it be as welcoming as this movie suggests. Wouldn't it be wonderful to find out? The part where she lost her daughter brought back the time we thought our young daughter had caught malaria in India. Thankfully she hadn't as we discovered after a trip to a hospital in Hong Kong (an experience in itself). We brought our kids to India to teach them something extra about what it really means to be human on this earth. However what a horrible feeling it was when we thought it was at the expense of their health. We got away with it and learned our lesson.I loved this movie, - the kids acting was superb, Kate was a joy to watch as usual, the location was stunning and the soundtrack makes me want to go out a buy the CD.

atrain224 "Hideous Kinky" is not a plot-driven movie but more of a meditation on time and place. And I can live with that. The photography is so rich with colors and beautiful locales, I want to visit Morrocco. The acting in splendid across the board with particular note to the two young girls who were handed quite a bit of duty with the roles. Where this movie failed me is in the character played by Kate Winslet. She behaves with such selfishness and stupidity--not once--but over and over again, that I really grew to dislike her. Sure...she may be a young, naive, adventurous, hippie in the early '70's, but a I refuse to believe she didn't realize what kind of danger she was putting her children in. "Hideous Kinky" is a good movie--not great. And it's good for one viewing, maybe two for the cinematography.