Synopsis
Holy Smoke (1999) is an Australian-American drama directed by Jane Campion that you can watch online on iFILM. Kate Winslet plays Ruth Barron, a young woman who returns from India convinced she has found her spiritual path under a charismatic guru. Her family, running out of options, hires PJ Waters — Harvey Keitel — a self-styled cult deprogrammer flown in from the United States.
Waters arrives with a three-day plan and an unbroken record. Ruth doesn't cooperate with the script. The two end up locked in a remote house in the Australian desert, and what begins as an intervention gradually turns into something neither of them can fully control.
Campion takes a premise that could easily play as thriller or satire and steers it somewhere far more unsettling: a film about who gets to define reality for whom, and how badly power can backfire on the person wielding it. Winslet is formidable here, and Keitel holds his own in a role that requires genuine vulnerability. Stream Holy Smoke (1999) online on iFILM.
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