Ruth (Winslet) comforts PJ (Keitel) after things get pretty grisly during her deprogramming...
The film opens with a gorgeous title sequence, set to Neil Diamond's Holly Holy and showing a young woman's odyssey in India as she discovers spiritual enlightenment at the hands of a robed guru. Ruth (Winslet) decides to stay in India in the pursuit of true love, but her family back Sydney is desperate to get her back. So they lure her home with a lie about her father's health and then send her into the outback where she's locked up with professional "cult exiter" PJ Waters (Keitel) for three days. But it's not as simple as that, as Ruth starts de-programming the de-programmer and things get very, very messy.
All of the performances are transparent and moving, and the actors and filmmakers cleverly bridge the gap between the serious situations and the wacky relatives (dim brother, nympho sister-in-law, carefree gay brother, vain dad). Hamilton is a standout as Ruth's concerned and terrified mum; she personifies the film's main theme about fear of the unknown, while Ruth and PJ bring out the complexities of manipulation on all sorts of layers. But the film misses the chance to honestly examine the story's religious centre. And after the initial set-up, the relationship between Ruth and PJ crosses a line into sexual obsession, which gets very tawdry for no real reason until the characters go off the rails completely. It does snap back into place at the end, with an intriguing final scene that's very reminiscent in structure and feel to The Piano ... and which brings together the lushness, drama, farce and intensity in a memorable way.
[18--very strong adult themes, language, nudity, sexual situations] 18.Aug.99
US release 3.Dec.99; UK release 31.Mar.00
"Wow! All I can say is wow! There's just so much to say ... and so many excellent quotes. The whole movie was mesmerizing, especially Kate's performance, absolutely magnificent. If the girl doesn't win an Oscar for this one the Academy's butt is mine and I hold to that! Jane Campion does things with her film that no other director could even dream about bringing out in their actors. I have seen the film 3 times and I give it a definite A++ thumbs up and all that good stuff (yea Jane and Kate!)." --Rachel K, net.
