‘Holy Smoke’ Intentions Apparently Went Astray

New Zealand-born filmmaker Jane Campion has had a varied career. She’d already been writing, producing and directing film and television projects for seven years before she scored her first international hit with “Sweetie” in 1989.

A twisted sort of family drama, “Sweetie” is as different as can be from Campion’s better known films. “The Piano” (1993) and “The Portrait of a Lady” (1996), for example, owe more of a debt to “Masterpiece Theatre” than they do, say, “Married… With Children.”

So it’s clear that “Holy Smoke” is a kind of homecoming for Campion. Instead of exploring the grand themes of great literature, she’s back to examining the kind of maudlin family dysfunction that ignorance and self-absorption can cause.

This, of course, is as bad as it is good.

Campion’s plot this time, which she wrote with sister Anna Campion, involves a family rebel. While on a trip to India, Ruth (Kate Winslet) discovers her spiritual side. She decides to extend her stay, choosing to join a guru’s stable of acolytes.

Her family is understandably disturbed. After they contact a noted authority on cults, P.J. Waters (Harvey Keitel), they trick Ruth into coming home (saying her dad is dying). That way they can deliver her into P.J.’s hands.

P.J. then sets down some simple directions: He and Ruth are to be isolated in a remote cabin, far from any outside influence, so that he can de-program her.

But the seemingly self-assured P.J. hasn’t reckoned on two things: One, Ruth is stronger in her beliefs than he thought; two, he himself is weaker than he would ever have imagined.

Much of this plays out intriguingly. Winslet’s Ruth is far brighter than her dim-bulb family, and her India sojourn is as much about her growth as an individual as it is a spiritual epiphany. Keitel, as always, plays a character who virtually smolders with unspoken intention.

But then Campion takes us into an emotional realm that is as uncomfortable to watch as it is inappropriate for the characters to act out. Let’s just say it involves Winslet getting naked and Keitel’s character losing contact with reality.

Which brings up the bad part: Maybe it’s just me, but Keitel just doesn’t seem right for the role. As always, he brings a sense of menace to his character — and that menace here serves to make Ruth’s ordeal feel more dangerous than perhaps it should.

And since P.J. never feels fully wrapped to begin with, Ruth’s struggle to maintain her new-found self gets shortchanged. The story ends up being more about his weaknesses than her strengths.

Then again, that may have been Campion’s intention all along. Which would be something else that “Holy Smoke” has in common with “Sweetie.”

I didn’t really understand what she was trying to do there, either.

This sidebar appeared with the story: MOVIE REVIEW “Holy Smoke” Two and a half stars Location: Lyons Ave. Cinemas Credits: Written (with Anna Campion) and directed by Jane Campion, starring Kate Winslet, Harvey Keitel, Julie Hamilton, Sophie Lee, Daniel Wyllie Running time: 1:54 Rating: R