Hideous Kinky (3 Stars)

This film is confusing to me. I have the feeling it's supposed to be portraying a spiritual journey, but that's not the message I take from it. All I see is a selfish woman putting herself first and letting her children suffer.

The film is a true story, based on the autobiography of Esther Freud, the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud. In the film Esther is called Lucy. That's something I can never understand. If a film tells a true story, why should the names of the real characters be changed? See my reviews of "Judgement in Berlin" and "Westflug" for an example of a particularly confusing renaming of the real people in two different filmings of the same event.

Kate Winslet plays Julia, a young woman who has left London to live in Morocco, taking her two daughters (aged 7 and 5) with her and leaving her husband behind. Her reason for being in Morocco is that London is too dull. While I don't disagree with her criticism of London, in Marrakesh she is broke and on the verge of starvation. This might be an interesting adventure for a single person, but the suffering she inflicts on her children is totally irresponsible. She expects her husband to finance her wild life, but when no money arrives she latches onto other men to support her. At the same time she considers becoming a convert to Sufism, but the Sufi leader sees through her shallowness and turns her away.

Maybe my rating of this film is unfair. The acting is good and the Moroccan scenery is beautiful. My low rating is more of a moral judgement of the main character. This is a film I'd love to discuss with others. Please leave a comment if you've seen it and let me know your thoughts.