ballroomofmars
You have to be open minded to really enjoy it. As if your trying a new recipe on your pizza.
sim-pl
I was expecting something about film with Keitel, whom I like, but I was really disappointed.The picture itself is primitive and distasteful, very obvious all the time and without any moment, that would surprise me. At the end, I was hoping 4 or 5 times that it will finish. Yet, another and another hopeless scene was coming, making me more and more tired and angered. I was not sure if this movie was designed as a drama or as a comedy - there were a few moments with weird cartoon like inserts, that made things worse. The characters were simple, one dimensional.It was one of the worst films I have ever seen.
arty44
it starts out well - a reasonably interesting premise, albeit not particularly original, and some good shooting of the Indian phantasmagoria. thereafter it's downhill all the way - be warned.some have admired the challenging themes and how they are handled. well, yes, they might have been - in another movie. i found it seriously ridiculous but then wondered if perhaps i was misinterpreting a spoof? either way it doesn't work. as drama it falls absolutely flat - the characters are not even one-dimensional or pantomime - they just bend willy nilly to whatever the writers want them to play in the next scene. there is no complexity here - just a jumble, a pastiche of switching back and forth between free floating exercises from drama school, with straw characters.a few slapstick moments reflect the level of such humour as there is. dumbass ponytail walks into a post; air head mother looks away at (supposedly) attractive male while child leaping into her arms belly flops to the ground; harvey keitel limps around the outback dressed in a frock. insipid.harvey keitel's role seems to be 'bad cop' transposed via an absurd portrayal of a cult-buster to the outback.kate winslet takes her clothes off, full frontal. big deal. maybe this had more market appeal in 1999, just before every form of sex/erotica/porn was freely available over the internet.suspending disbelief is inherent to much of movie enjoyment, but beggaring belief (except in fantasy)poisons any potential enjoyment. the scripted puppetry with which kate winslet moves in no time at all from sannyasin to being groped by two drunks in a bar is awful. it does not portray a confused young woman worth taking seriously - it is just another scene utterly manufactured out of sheer vacuity on the part of the campions.etc.
jytou
It's so hard to find a philosophical movie about India. When I took this movie from the local library (fortunately I didn't pay for it), I was hoping to see a teaser about Buddhism, or at least something funny about sects, but again I was wrong, and once again I understand that nobody in the film industry can make a real movie about India, Buddhism, or inner vacation. It doesn't even get close to this point. Don't search any philosophical ideas in this movie, you'll much more find every kind of porn fantasy: peeing naked woman, two men and women half naked, old man and young woman sex, man having makeup, gay/lesbians, etc. As they couldn't make a real movie, they tried the cheapest catches with naked women. My biggest movie mistake in my life, I watched it until the end to make sure and warn everyone not to watch it and waste 140 minutes from your lifetime, unless you're willing to wake up some sick feelings from strange fantasies. I was shocked seeing Kate Winslet in this movie, I really wonder how they made her sign the contract, it's definitely not the same woman who made Titanic a few years before. If your goal if to see her naked (and more), I'm not even sure it's worth renting this movie. Actors are overacting, I kept asking myself during the whole movie if it was the director's mistake or the actor's mistake, but the result is really bad, I guess they really smoked something while making this movie.
AD
