Review: Hideous Kinky
Hideous Kinky begins with a nightmare. A little girl looks out the train and mounting whispers of "hideous kinky" give way to a scene of a little girl -- is it the same one? -- running through the dark, narrow alleyways before falling into the beautiful, colorful, dangerous chaos of the streets of Marrakech. All the while she is calling for her mother, who is also calling her name. Julia (Kate Winslet), the little girl's mother, wakes up in a sweat and checks to see that her daughter is in her bed. Lucy (Carrie Mullan) joins her mother and the two fall asleep, Lucy lying atop her mother's topless back during one of Marrakech's hot and sultry nights.
Julia experiences another dream later on and it is equally as unsettling. She imagines her other daughter Bea (Bella Riza), whom she has left with acquaintances at this point in the film, has followed her and Lucy to the temple they have travelled to. She follows her daughter, who becomes more and more elusive with each corner turned, until they come face to face and a dismembered black hand clutches Bea's throat. Hideous Kinky is replete with such startling and startlingly composed images, which aids in carrying a film that barely features a semblance of a plot. Actually, it does though the audience will have to be prepared to fill in many blanks.
Julia has left her native London to live a vastly different life. She believes she's found it in Morocco though her daughter Bea is adamant about retaining as much normalcy as possible. Lucy is more open to her mother's spiritual adventure but finds it best not to disagree with Bea. To support herself and her girls, Julia crafts and sells dolls. The support checks from the girls' father never seem to arrive and when they do receive a care package from him, it is a package he intended for his other children. It's no wonder then that the girls wonder if their mother's new lover Bilal (Saïd Taghmaoui) will function as their father as well.
Bilal is a complex sort -- though initially wary of him, the girls are won over by his showman's charm. But this Moroccan who bears whip marks on his back may have a few secrets he'd like to keep hidden away, namely a wife and perhaps a criminal past. When he brings Julia and the girls to his hometown, he is shocked to find his spouse present. And when he translates a friend's words for Lucy, the words cut deep: "To neglect a wife is a crime against God and a mortal sin."
Hideous Kinky is an eccentric film that nevertheless has a bizarrely entrancing effect. Based on Esther Freud's (yes, she's descended from Sigmund Freud) own semi-autobiographical account of her childhood travels, the film delineates the effect of a mother's desire to better herself on her kids. Is it selfish and emotionally abusive of Julia to drag her kids around Morocco and to Algeria, where she hopes to have an audience with a renowned Sufi? Should she be placing her own ideals and expectations of spirituality upon her children? Bea doesn't believe so but, at 25, Julia still needs to discover who she is and what she'd like life to hold for her.
As Julia, Winslet once again proves her prodigious talents. It's not one of her strongest roles but she invests a lioness' determination and fortitude in the role. Looking bronzed and beautiful, her appearance also demonstrates her admirable penchant for selecting unexpected roles. I still wonder how James Cameron convinced Winslet and DiCaprio, both of whom possess such unswerving artistic sensibilities, to appear in a film where they would play second fiddle to a sinking boat.
Taghmaoui, also seen in Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine (Hate) and currently in production on David O. Russell's Three Kings with George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, is definitely a welcome presence and lends an appealing nomadic roguishness to Bilal. Both Mullan and Riza are impressive in their film debuts; both provide Hideous Kinky with its emotional anchor. The title, by the way, comes from a children's game of putting together totally disparate words that make no sense together but sound fantastical to children's ears.
Hideous Kinky
Directed by: Gilles MacKinnon
Written by: Billy MacKinnon; adapted from Esther Freud's novel
Starring: Kate Winslet, Saïd Taghmaoui, Bella Riza, Carrie Mullan
