Hideous Kinky (1999)

Undescribable Perfection

Such a frustrating disappointment

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Blistering performances.

It's 1972 Marrakesh. Julia (Kate Winslet) moves from London to Morocco with his young daughters Bea and Lucy. The girls' father has another woman in London. They struggle waiting for the father's check to come in. Julia falls for acrobat street performer Bilal (Saïd Taghmaoui). She goes to study in Algiers with Sufi mystic Ben Said.There is a meandering pointlessness about this movie. It doesn't have enough exotic style. The movie doesn't tap into a child's wonder. It doesn't have tension of surviving in a foreign land. Kate Winslet looks downbeat which somewhat fits her character. She may want to be someone looking for spirituality but she strikes as someone self-obsessed running away from her troubled home. She's more about her love life than taking care of her children.

I love HIDEOUS KINKY for the same reason most people do...Kate Winslet is the star of the film. She chose this role over the leads in ANNA AND THE KING and Shakespeare IN LOVE...and if you ask me her character of Julia is much more challenging and interesting, and faces REAL dilemmas. And Winslet is just luminous...really the woman is staggeringly beautiful here. And the story is simple and sweet, quietly moving. SAIID TAGHMOUI is also very good. The photography and scenery is beautiful, the music is beautiful. This is the kind of film you can watch as eye candy...but there is still substance there in the story. It just doesn't hammer you over the head with trying to be ultra important. However, that said, there are very serious matters of the heart and soul dealt with by the 2 lead characters.Kate Winslet is the best actress of her time.

This is simply a beautiful film, breathtakingly shot, with wonderful acting especially so by Carrie Mullan. Of the two girls who play the daughters of Kate Winslet, she rightly so has the (even if only slightly so) bigger acting part. Refreshingly free of a rigorous story line, you can just enjoy the atmosphere and exquisite photography. And, of course the actors. Winslet is her usual self, solid acting, and she's apparently not afraid to show herself in a less than perfect physical appearance, against the Standard-Issued-Hollywood-Bodies culture. A leeettle chubby, she's the perfect reflection of Greek sculpture. Mullan's mimic is very grown-up, Riza is good, though at times her inexperience shines through and Taghmaoui is quite sympathetic. The nudity in this film should not be considered daring in this day and age, and is thus true to the film's era. The makers obviously thought something like: 'Shove it, if this arouses or excites you, there's something very wrong with you' and i salute them for it.8/10 The Melancholic Alcoholic.

While I can understand the negative comments which abound regarding this film, I feel sorry for the nay-sayers. They have missed the point of the film. Midway thru my first viewing, I realized that my discomfiture with the film's plot while being inundated with exotic images, colors, and sounds (AND the shenanigans of two incrediby believable young ladies) was a perfect parallel to Julia's escape, frustrated spiritual quest, and self-imposed flighty existence abroad. MAGNIFICENT!Splendid casting and acting by an eclectic ensemble of professionals and locals! Kate Winslett has a certain je-ne-sais-quality which is reprised in the intelligent flightiness of her later (2001) role as the young Iris Murdoch.If you love world music - especially the exoticism of North African rhythms, vocalizations, and instrumentation - this film will be as much a feast for your ears as for your eyes. Even the interspersal of well-chosen western pop hits works to advance the on-the-edge/off-balance feeling of the entire film. This is cinematic art at its finest! While not for everybody, this is a film for those who wish for more than simple, passive "entertainment."