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.
At once hilarious and serious, cruel and tender, and bristling with vitality, Holy Smoke is the right movie for the millennium, envisioning new possibilities in the way people view and relate to one another.
– Kevin Thomas,
Los Angeles Times,
15 Aug 2002
fresh:
It's brave, adventurous, refreshingly frank -- qualities also marking the performances, particularly those of the leads.
– Derek Adams,
Time Out,
24 Jun 2006
fresh:
Ms. Winslet is, by contrast, champagne and caviar for moviegoing grown-ups with good taste.
– Andrew Sarris,
New York Observer,
27 Apr 2007
fresh:
Original in every sense, this often difficult film about family, relationships, sexual politics, spiritual questing, faith and obsession further explores the director's abiding fascinations in excitingly unconventional terms.
– David Rooney,
Variety,
17 Jun 2008
rotten:
All sorts of questions go unanswered, and there's little of the density found in Campion's early work; this is mainly smoke, not fire.