From Esther Freud's book about a single 25-year old British woman and her two pre-teen daughters living on a shoestring budget in 1972 Morocco, hoping to experience a journey of wisdom and truth but finding that difficult without benefit of money. Flashy but disappointingly one-note odyssey is about as appealing as its ungainly title (which certainly didn't help the picture at the box-office). Still, Kate Winslet is terrific in the difficult leading role, beautiful and pliable under such heavy-handed circumstances, and nothing prepared me for the quiet simplicity of the finale. That sequence, staggering in its subtle nuances of beauty and emotion, gives the viewer a sense of grandeur that the rest of the film fails to adequately capture. ** from ****
Review of Hideous Kinky
