Hideous Kinky Details

A nicely shot but poorly executed drama

Hideous Kinky stars Kate Winslet as Julia, a restless single mother who's tired of her life in London. After the father of her two daughters has an affair, Julia heads off to Morocco with the girls, Bea (Bella Riza), and younger sister Lucy (Carrie Mullan). It's 1972, and Julia is on a quest for adventure and self-discovery. While she finds excitement in a fling with street acrobat Bilal(Sa?d Taghmaoui), she soon starts to struggle with the harsh realities of raising two children in Marrakesh.

Director Gillies MacKinnon takes a potentially interesting culture-clash drama and makes a real mess of things. He seems so distracted by the scenery and local customs that he loses his grip on the already threadbare screenplay. The film is reduced to a series of incoherent vignettes and MacKinnon has an unfortunate habit of truncating scenes before the actors have a chance to get a rhythm going, or before the dramatic point of the scene becomes clear.

With little or no backstory given for the characters it's left to the cast to carry the movie and Winslet gives a typically intense and convincing display. MacKinnon coaxes solid performances from the two young girls and Taghmaoui is also excellent despite his poorly written character.

There is a lot less going on in 'Hideous Kinky' than meets the eye, just endless luminous images in search of a meaning. The movie is neither hideous nor kinky and it probably could have done with a little of both. The pretentious title is derived from a word game in which the children put together unlikely words to describe their feelings. The movie could be summed up in equally mixed fashion: Beautiful Dreary.

This Picture is more hideous than kinky by a long way. Winslet plays a hippie in the 1970s who has run off to North Africa to find herself. Unfortunately she has dragged her two small daughters along which makes you just want to slap her. The film meanders pointlessly along to its innevitable conclusion by which time you are not particularly bothered what happens. The one star awarded is mainly due to the excellent performances of the two youngsters in the daughter roles, who keep you interested just enough for you to reach the end.