Campion, Winslet blow 'Smoke'

By Laura Flyer

Daily Arts Writer

Somehow it is manageable in "The Piano." Not sure how, but it is. Maybe it is because Harvey Keitel was a bit younger that we are able to cringe for a moment and then quickly forget about his brief exposure of nakedness. At least then his character isn't so unappealing as it is in Jane Campion's most recent film, "Holy Smoke," where he not only strips but also graces our presence with his adornment of women's clothing and lipstick.

Keitel is known for playing the role of the sexy yet unattractive older man who manages to lure extremely attractive women by merely carrying himself in a confident manner. This is how he snags Ruth (Kate Winslet) who ultimately seems too attractive to legitimize the odd conjoinment of an older man/younger woman relationship.

Initially, though, Campion's storyline progresses positively. On a trip to India with friend Carol (Pam Grier), Ruth witnesses a spiritual ceremony, expecting to mock the whole affair. Instead, she becomes obsessed with an Indian guru named Baba. Her family, back in Sans Souci, Sydney, goes to great length in trying to get her back.

Phase One of her rescue involves her asthmatic, easily-traumatized mother, who ventures out into the seedier areas of India to rescue her daughter. Ruth returns home only due to the misguided information she receives regarding her father's death and also because of her mother's respiratory problems while abroad.

Enter Phase Two: Mr. PJ Waters (Keitel), a near-"T.J. Mackey," who possesses that kind of trashy masculine vulgarity in clothing and outwardly suave-like motions. He's been sent to de-brainwash Ruth, assuming the prodigious title of "cult-exiter." We're supposed to get a sense of his superiority in calm confidence and agility, a quality which manifests itself in the beginning and crumbles by the end. His macho-ness walks right up to a commotion amongst hungry patrons at a Sydney airport, who are desperate to jiggle free a set of horizontally-stacked luggage carts. Waters' rescue is almost dance-like as he gracefully unattaches the carts and spins them right into the hands of astonished people. And herein begins Campion's way of satirizing the overwhelming incompetence of the trailer-trash folks from Down Under.

Such suggestive demoralizations are underscored by what really goes awry in "Holy Smoke." What's most unsettling is the disjointed way in which characters evolve from their highly-focused convictions to near-hysteria and insanity in too short of a time frame. As Ruth begins her three-day rehabilitation program with Waters in a completely secluded residence (titles introducing new scenes are humorously conceived, such as this setting's, "The Half Way Hut"), it's obvious that due to her presence as a highly intelligent and strong-willed character, it will take a long time for Waters to break her.

Unfortunately, her "break-point" is right on schedule with Waters expectations, ending by the third day. When the climax of her identity crisis does occur, it is incredibly unconvincing and seems as though a couple of videos displaying various cults driven to violence is all it took for her to cave in.

From then on, the film exploits Winslet's beauty and Keitel's sleazy-looking qualities, trying to extract a spiritual relationship between them despite their obvious differences in appearance, personality, and age. When Keitel's personality breaks apart, the film becomes a sham, turning one story of religious conviction and moral courage awkwardly into another of overwhelming decadence and disgrace. If Campion is trying to mold with the times by throwing in a little shot of post-modernism, it didn't work.

Other ends are left undone: Implications of the importance of Ruth's teenage problems never get resolved, though glimpses of her own sexual confusion could have explained a lot more. But the movie does not attempt to justify what is prepared for us on a silver platter at the beginning, instead harping on the growing inimical natures of both Waters and Ruth.

Campion does have some interesting ideas, however, as in one scene where the nonsensicality of religion itself is being mocked, which is supposed to be representative of the chief retaliator to cult obsession in "Holy Smoke." As Ruth's mother nervously recites prayers from the Christian Bible, she helplessly turns to her friend and moans, "Oh no, this isn't the prayer about the devil, is it?" These Australians are trying to save Ruth from the nonsense of cult activism, but they can't even extract meaning from their own religious devotion.

Courtesy of Miramax

Kate Winslet stars as Ruth, the psycho bitch in Jane Campion's "Holy Smoke!"