One of my all time favorites.

Great Film overall

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

Well, I felt the first trauma at screen for "Wadja", then it reappears with "Baby Call", then "Daisy Diamond" and now with this movie. Thus, my panic button isn't bloody monsters, slashers or creatures but only a single mum with her kid. As i met this situation in real, maybe that's the explanation.As this movie shows, in such a family, the mother is so obsessed that even if she loves truly her kid, she doesn't see him also. At the end, due to his erratic mother, kid being kid, he is put in danger and it's very painful to share this moments.Here, it's indeed the case: Kate is in search of meaning, of truth and she thinks that the answer lies with Sufism. So it's a trip from England to Morocco with her two daughters and as money is the blood and fuel that makes the world spins, without any, life becomes difficult. In a way, it has the same flavors that Coelho's novel "the Alchimist", mixing desert, spirituality...At first, the movie is a bit annoying as nothing really happens. But, surely, the movie gains intensity as the family takes trips, meet friends and the magical exoticism of Morocco comes inside you: As i went there once, there's truly a wonderful light and you can see it shining here. But you'll notice also that this country has one of the most colored cultures in the world and that it's also a very inegalitarian one as the gap between poor and riches is huge.Still very young for this movie and a mother to be, Kate is however very maternal and really cares for her daughters: she never shouts at them even as they talk straight. But it's her daughters that steal the spotlight: they are funny, intelligent, and ready to grasp the world. The bond between her is great as they could pass for real sisters.At the end, it's not a surprise that this movie is dates from 1998: today, I don't think that a self-discovery journey of a western family into the Arabic world would be produced so that's another reason to not miss this one.

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.