Kate Winslet Movie:

Editorial Review:
Hideous Kinky journeys back to the early 1970s to Marrakesh, that hippy mecca for everyone from Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix to Gillies MacKinnon, the director of this movie. Here you'll find one nice but confused middle-class young woman escaping the daily grind of a drab London with her two young daughters in tow. Whereas Esther Freud's book was told from the younger girl's perspective, the film-script places Julia centre-stage as she searches for what she describes wistfully as "the annihilation of the ego."

Though fresh from her Titanic experience, Kate Winslet is no drippy hippy, bringing a refreshing feistiness to her role and looking fetching swathed in diaphanous layers. As her two daughters, Bella Riza (Bea, the wide-eyed younger one) and Carrie Mullan (Lucy, the sensible one) are brilliant discoveries--unselfconscious, charmingly quirky, and enjoying a camaraderie that belies their difference in characters. Completing the family unit is Julia's lover, the endearingly unreliable Bilal (a fiery performance from Saïd Taghmaoui). When the money runs out, their adventures begin and the resilience and practicality of the girls is contrasted throughout with the dreaminess of their mother, her sense of duty vying with her quest for self-discovery. Visually, it's a veritable feast as we're pitched from the color and cacophony of the marketplace to the dusty harshness of the mountains. And that elusive title--which is never explained in the film--is in fact a phrase coined by the girls as a term of approbation. --Harriet Smith

Hideous Kinky [Region 2] Reviews:
Pocketful of Sunshine
2009-02-03 - This is a film that carries you away and transports you into a magical, intoxicating world. Kate Winslet is as usual, fantastic. She has a light in her eyes and looks so at peace with herself in this. I love the story and the beautiful cinematography, and this movie does everything it's supposed to do, entrall you with good acting and TAKE YOU AWAY FROM ALL THIS!

In my Top Three all time favorites.
2008-02-19 - There is not much I can say about this movie that hasn't been said beautifully by others. I saw this when I was around 20 years old and it left an indelible impression on me. I am truly grateful for Kate Winslet to have chosen to tell this story. I think that her character is based on the granddaughter of Freud to to be especially familiar for me, as I come from a family of Freudians and yet I too am of similar spirit to Julia. However I only learned that fact after watching it and loving it already. If you enjoyed this movie as I have, I also recommend 'Holy Smoke' which she made with Harvey Keitel before this movie. It is similar but also very different.

"The Truth Is A Man Standing Upright In The Sun" ~ Duties And Passing Pleasures On The Road To Annihilation
2007-02-26 - Synopsis: Set in the year 1972 in Marrakech, Morocco we find twenty-five year old British hippie Julia (Kate Winslet) wandering about Marrakech with her two young daughters. Tired of the sameness of everyday life she has left the father of her children behind in London in search of "something different" for the children and herself in North Africa.

Julia and the girls wander about the exotic landscape interacting with the locals, other occidental fellow seekers and an occasional British ex-patriot or two. She becomes involved in a romantic interlude with a street performer named Bilal (Said Taqhmaoui) but her real quest is not to find another man, but to discover the Truth (yes, with a capital T). She hopes what she is looking for will be revealed to her by the resident leader of a group of Sufi's, a sect of Islamic mystics flourishing in the area. The only question is whether or not she's ready for the answer?

Critique: `Hideous Kinky' released in '99 is an exquisite film that insightfully captures the innate human desire to find some form of spiritual underpinning in life to counterbalance a mundane world consisting of nothing more than duties and passing pleasures. The film takes the viewer on a slow, meandering, hypnotic journey through the cities and countryside of Morocco. The goal of the storyline is at times unclear, but then so is any true spiritual journey. And like any real quest for truth the answers one receives are generally not answers at all, only more questions. It's this ambiguity of thought and motion that is the real beauty and message of this mesmerizing film. The amazing scenery coupled with a soundtrack consisting of late `60's, early `70's pop tunes interspersed between African rhythms and Sufi trance music make for a magical mystery tour to another world.

Recommendation: This film belongs in your permanent DVD collection.

Mothers on a journey often abandon their children
2007-01-14 - Kate Winslet stars as a single English mother of two who takes them to Morocco with her on her spiritual journey. They have many adventures, which begin as a fun time, but they run out of money and the girls begin to miss home. I loved the movie because I related so much with Kate Winslet's character until she turned into a self-obsessed mother - one of my greatest fears.

Hideously Good
2006-10-11 - Kate Winslet is a very good actress, there is no doubt about it. She is one of few actors who gives a very honest account of the character she is playing being extremely focused to her work. She does this movie a lot of justice. The story moves slow at times, but fast enough to keep you captivated. Kate is very convincing as a young single British mother on a spiritual journey and quest of self discovery in Morocco. The scenery is also spectacular. Buy this movie along with Holy Smoke if you can. It works out cheaper, it is certainly not worth the money being asked of it on its own.