Hideous Kinky

Sorting out my thoughts about this movie is tricky since I did read the book and it's hard to forget it.

The book has the distinction of being narrated by the younger sister and so a crucial part of the book's identity is lost. But I think this is for the best since it instead chooses to tell its story visually rather than use an annoying narrator to tell us what we can see. A first person novel is incredibly intimate while a movie (when made like a movie, not a book) has the advantage of a certain aloofness and there is something voyeuristic in the cool pacing and candour of this story.

There is a much stronger character in the mother here as someone on a quest for spirituality but not sure what kind of spirituality. The focus is on the family and isn't centred on the little girl so much.

The on location filming is beautiful even if it could have given us more in terms of local colour.

Overall I enjoyed this breezy movie about people on an indeterminate path in life and trying to find identity in exotic lands and how this doesn't turn out as will as you hope. The light touch is much appreciated and the sense of intimacy of the family is evident from their physical interaction. The little girl strolls dressed in nothing but underpants to cuddle with Mom; later she slides up close to Mum making love with her Muslim lover.

At it's core a little disquieting but ultimately warm experience.

Kate Winslet and her young co-stars are charming in this film. The children have some priceless scenes which are faultlessly acted and leave you wishing that you could encounter such vibrant children in real life instead of the ones prone to throwing tantrums in crowded shopping malls.

The story drifts all over the place - more of a string of events meandering along in search of a purpose, much like Winslet's character. The scenery is stunning, the colours of Morrocco vibrant and the glimpse into another culture is well executed. A fine film to watch if you want visual stimulation, but don't wish to concentrate on a complex story.

People who find the story "weak" "incomplete" "meandering" "frustrating" are missing the point there. The whole hippie travel experience was by definition all of the above so the film depicts very accurately what a woman of 25 in 1972 in Morocco with a local boyfriend would have been experiencing. The local colour is extremely well depicted as is the relationship between Julia and Bilal. Also the daughters not wanting any of it Sufi master or not; as it happened to so many commune kids from that period who left to take up merchant banking or join the army; most kids like order and not aimless wandering; so again: accurate depiction ... the film is by no means a masterpiece but it is nonetheless excellent and for anyone too young to remember the turn of the 70s a useful timetravel tool ... and yes all the acting is first-class here: The kids; Kate; all the Moroccan actors.

I had missed this movie when it came out over 20 years ago but now was able to watch it on the Kanopy streaming site via my public library's subscription. The title might be misleading, it derives from a short exchange between the two young daughters as they lay in bed, one says "hideous" and the other responds "kinky", it is not clear that they actually know what the meanings are.

The movie is filmed entirely in Morocco. Kate Winslet, only 22 during filming, seems to be playing an almost 30 woman with two young daughters. She is Julia, they leave their London home and her poet husband to find out what a different life is like. Her husband is supposed to send money to them periodically but that becomes unreliable and they have to devise ways to try to make ends meet.

The result is a series of adventures and misadventures before they finally board a train in the start of a journey back to England. It is a well made movie with many interesting elements, but when it is over there isn't much residual impact. Most interesting to me was to see a sort of travelogue of Morocco, a place I've never been.

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.