All sorts of questions go unanswered, and there's little of the density found in Campion's early work; this is mainly smoke, not fire.

| Apr 27, 2012

Original in every sense, this often difficult film about family, relationships, sexual politics, spiritual questing, faith and obsession further explores the director's abiding fascinations in excitingly unconventional terms.

| Jun 17, 2008

Ms. Winslet is, by contrast, champagne and caviar for moviegoing grown-ups with good taste.

| Apr 27, 2007

It's brave, adventurous, refreshingly frank -- qualities also marking the performances, particularly those of the leads.

| Jun 24, 2006

Behind the philosophical smoke burns a genuine comedic fire.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 12, 2002

At once hilarious and serious, cruel and tender, and bristling with vitality, Holy Smoke is the right movie for the millennium, envisioning new possibilities in the way people view and relate to one another.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2002

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 18, 2002

Nice try, but there's not a laugh in sight.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 5, 2002

It is an immense, emotional, engrossing film that nevertheless wears its brilliance casually.

| Apr 17, 2001

A dreadful mess.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Despite the good performances and Campion's visual reach, her characters are too specific/eccentric to transcend their storyline and make us feel that there's something to be absorbed from the P.J.-Ruth imbroglio.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

One other factor makes Holy Smoke! persuasive to watch: Campion's sheer pleasure in image-making.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

This script -- to be kind -- is uneven at best and completely illogical at its worst.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

It probably all looked good on paper, but the playing out is something else again.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

The screenplay sometimes slashes with sharp dialogue, and Campion's directing unmistakably breathes conviction. What she lacks is sufficient humor to see when she approaches the risible and sufficient perception to keep her seriousness fresh.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

Confused and lacking a tangible emotional center, Campion's tale of a sleazy cult deprogrammer and his voluptuous Aussie charge is chock-full of half-baked statements, notions, and scenes...

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jan 1, 2000

It also has a terrific subject and the spirit to bring it off.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

The most blatant and delirious of [Campion's] five features.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

A smaller picture like this, shot out of the mainstream, has a better chance of being quirky and original. And quirky it is, even if not successful. Maybe it's the setup that threw me off.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Holy Smoke! owes a lot to Winslet, both because of the way she looks and because of the emotional energy she brings to her work. Without Winslet, the film would be barely worth watching.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 1, 2000