Lee Eisenberg When we watched "Hideous Kinky" a few years ago, it seemed like a period piece: it looked at the days when people could go to a place like Morocco and not have to fear for their lives. Since September 11, 2001, it's become even more of a period piece.Is it a good movie? Even if the movie's no masterpiece, it's good just to be able to see Kate Winslet as a Swinging London flower child taking her daughters to Morocco, where she strikes up a relation with a local man. That probably would be dangerous nowadays.So see it just for that. Given the current state of the world, you may not have much more time to watch it.

dusan711 I love HIDEOUS KINKY for the same reason most people do...Kate Winslet is the star of the film. She chose this role over the leads in ANNA AND THE KING and Shakespeare IN LOVE...and if you ask me her character of Julia is much more challenging and interesting, and faces REAL dilemmas. And Winslet is just luminous...really the woman is staggeringly beautiful here. And the story is simple and sweet, quietly moving. SAIID TAGHMOUI is also very good. The photography and scenery is beautiful, the music is beautiful. This is the kind of film you can watch as eye candy...but there is still substance there in the story. It just doesn't hammer you over the head with trying to be ultra important. However, that said, there are very serious matters of the heart and soul dealt with by the 2 lead characters.Kate Winslet is the best actress of her time.

Philby-3 The tagline for this movie (on the DVD box) "It's not about escape, it's about discovery" would be inspiring if it were true, but I'm not sure 25 year old "Julia" found her time in Morocco as a single mother with two young girls living precariously on occasional cheques from home particularly life-changing. It is the late 60s. "Julia" (played with suitable poise by Kate Winslett) has fled London to Morocco after her painter husband has taken up with someone else. Marrakech is a cheap place to live, but it's a struggle. Her kids Bea and Lucy befriend Bilal (Said Taghmaoui), an acrobat from the Medina who promptly beds Julia. Charming though he is, he turns out to be unreliable. Her efforts to become a follower of Sufi mysticism end in rejection. Eventually Julia and her girls board the fabled Marrakech express, but it is in retreat from the exotic, not in search of it.It seems that Esther Freud, the original author, wrote her more than slightly autobiographical first novel from the point of view of Lucy, the younger child (6 years old in the film) and produced a very interesting book. The film is much more matter of fact, though the locations and cinematography are gorgeous, and Julia's struggle to survive is more obtrusive. It's an interesting country all right but Julia does not belong there.Your correspondent happened recently to be in Morocco, and Marrakech, and was told about this film by some local friends. They liked it because despite the beggars, heat and dust, it portrayed Morocco as a friendly, welcoming place. And so it is, but that does not make it the place for hippy dreamers. Ms Freud's mum settled down in the Home Counties after this experience. Here, Bea, the older girl, wants nothing more than to be "normal', to have a satchel, wear a uniform and go to school like all the other girls, and to heck with exotic Morocco. Lucy, on the other hand, just soaks it all in, and hey, 20 years later writes a promising first novel. Well, maybe Julia's odyssey was not entirely in vain.This film did not do well at the box office, despite the presence of Kate Winslett, and I can think of a couple of reasons (apart from the meaningless title) why not. The story, such as it is, is pretty discouraging and the locations over-relied on. (There are also a few dreadful minor performances). But as a psychological travel film it succeeds quite well, even if not everything is possible in the Moroccan Postal Service, as one brave official claims.Esther Freud happens to be the daughter of the noted British painter Lucien Freud, and hence the great-granddaughter of the great Sigmund, father of psychoanalysis. I mention this only because Julia has a couple of dreams great-granddad would not have had any trouble with, but Lucy's dreams eg the disembodied hand are more intriguing. Perhaps if the director could have approached the story more from Lucy's viewpoint it might have had more impact.

Theo Robertson Ah yes HIDEOUS KINKY that`s the one with Kate Winslet getting abducted by a cult and Harvey Keitel races to save the day . I was slightly confused as to why Keitel`s name didn`t appear in the credits but this is for the simple reason that I had got this movie mixed up with HOLY SMOKE . I won`t bother to apologise , it`s an easy mistake to make Actually I would have enjoyed Harvey Keitel turning up in this film blowing away a few bad guys because this would have given HIDEOUS KINKY some male appeal since this is a dreary chick flick about nothing much of interest . Julia is a single mother who takes her two young daughters to Morocco , so there you go that`s the plot summed up .Anymore comments ? Not much except to say I thought Julia was one helluva poor role model for mothers everywhere . She doesn`t mind letting her daughters see her rolling around in bed with a man she`s just met , or letting them live in some drug fuelled doss house full of hash heads . In truth women like Julia should be barred from having children And film makers should be banned from making low concept feature films like HIDEOUS KINKY unless they feature Harvey Keitel blowing away bad guys