Holy Smoke

Jane Campion is both a feminist and a perceptive artist. Her Holy Smoke is a well-made ode to the subject of a strong man falling into the trap of attraction to a femme-fatale. Visuals imbued with warm colours play an important role in the film, enhancing the sultry atmosphere of the Australian outback in which the (also sultry, in places) story plays out in a small, isolated location. As always, Harvey Keitel turns in a minimalist performance, but he is well suited to both of the positions in which he finds himself – as the rakish cowboy in black jeans and as the broken loser in a lady’s red dress. In terms of acting, Kate Winslet leads the film, as the importance of her character grows with each passing minute as the power of Keitel’s protagonist wanes. Holy Smoke is a self-contained film that lacks nothing. Though it is not easy to give oneself over to it, it is hard to deny its narrative originality and, at times, its controversial openness. It could have been unforgettable if, instead of the wanna-be artsy optics, Campion had given priority to intimacy that would have made the viewer-voyeur a viewer-participant. (24/11/2006)

Harvey Keitel might have been easy on the eyes and might have had the charm of an alpha male of a monkey troop, but here, he’s played in a movie that’s more of a farce than a drama. Basically, this movie has no clue what it wants to do. At first, it tells a story of an insane Kate Winslet who has an equally insane family and then in some scenes, it all goes silent to create a wannabe funny comedy effect. (27/08/2016)