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Kate Winslet, Said Taghmaoui, Bella Riza, Carrie Mullan, Pierre Clémenti ... see more see more... , Sira Stampe , Abigail Cruttenden , Ahmed Boulane , Michelle Fairley , Kevin Mckidd , Mohcine Barmouni , Peter Youngblood Hills

Gillies MacKinnon directed this $5.6 million production with a screenplay by his brother, Billy MacKinnon. The film adapts the 1992 autobiographical novel by Esther Freud (Sigmund Freud's granddaughte... read more read more...r) about hippie misadventures in North Africa in 1972, as described by a five-year-old girl. Disenchanted with the dreary conventions of English life, 25-year-old Julia (Kate Winslet) heads for Morocco with her children, six-year-old Lucy (Carrie Mullan) and precocious eight-year-old Bea (Bella Riza). Living at a low-rent Marrakesh hotel, the trio survives on the sale of hand-sewn dolls and a few checks from the girls' father, a London poet who also has a child by another woman. After the girls match their mother with gentle Moroccan acrobat and con man Bilal (Said Taghmaoui), sexual gears are set in motion, and he moves in, serving as a surrogate father. Julia's friend Eva (Sira Stampe) urges Julia to study in Algiers with a revered Sufi master at a school of "the annihilation of the ego," and in another sequence European dandy Santoni invites Julia and the girls to his villa. As finances dwindle, Julia's philosophy is "God will provide," although usually it's Bilal who provides. This film was shot October-November 1997 in Morocco, where Winslet caught a stomach bug. Back in London, she went directly into the hospital and thus missed Titanic's London premiere. The score blends North African music with British-American pop hits of the '60s. The film's title derives from a word game played by the girls. Shown at the 1998 Dinard Festival of British Cinema and the 1998 London Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Flixster Users

56% liked it

7,569 ratings

Critics

65% liked it

52 critics

R, 1 hr. 37 min.

Directed by: Gillies MacKinnon

Release Date: June 1, 1998

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DVD Release Date: October 26, 1999

Stats: 322 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (322)

  • purplemegan
    January 11, 2010
    purplemegan
    I enjoyed the movie. I watched it a while ago so I don't have much to offer. I remember thinking that it was very pretty. The young girls were adorable.
  • 76Majikat
    October 3, 2008
    76Majikat
    An enjoyable performance by Kate Winslett, who plays the part of a hippie mother living in Marrakesh with her two daughters, struggling to earn money from day to day.

    This drama was a little slow moving and not hugely exciting yet enjoyable and intriguing and an opportunity to... read more delve into a new culture.
  • mjgildea
    December 24, 2007
    mjgildea
    The only highlights of Hideous Kinky were a shot of Kate Winslet's boobs and a few slightly amusing scenes. Not anything to base an entire movie off of. Actually that shot wasn't even that flattering, the more I think about it. Mainly the movie just wanders around forever like it... read more took some bad acid and woke up 3 states away.
  • zeravenyoej
    July 11, 2008
    zeravenyoej
    There's really not going alot in this movie. It's over an hour in till something actually happens. To be honest, if it was anyone else but Kate Winslet I probably wouldn't be interested in it in the first place, but homegirl brings it. Natural, lively, and always watchable; th... read moreat's my girl.
  • trisarahtops22
    April 8, 2010
    trisarahtops22
    I don't think this is something I'd come back to and watch over and over again. But Kate Winslet was great as a self-centered and, at times, delusional mother who still really does care for her kids. Interesting and well acted.
  • RemiLogan
    September 24, 2009
    RemiLogan
    Good indie movie that portrays "Arabs" and Muslims in a humanizing light. It was refreshing to see these people of color portrayed as something other than terrorists and foils in some unimaginative action film. "Kinky" made me a fan of Saïd Taghmaoui and made me respect Kate Wins... read morelet more as an actress. I was particularly surprised (and proud, actually) to see North Africans actually calling themselves "African." I'd love to see more films like this.
  • ileo
    December 22, 2008
    ileo
    Great movie! Fascinating story plot about the adventures of a young woman and her two daughters. Definitely worth seeing!!
  • PinkMinkPrincess
    July 20, 2011
    PinkMinkPrincess
    I had High Expectations for this Movie, but it fell short.Hippy Dippy bad story.The name is better than the Movie.Kate Winslet is one of the best present day actresses, & her performance is good for what she had to work with.Must've read better on paper!
  • Glove86
    July 28, 2008
    Glove86
    I give Kate Winslet props for doing such a small indie after the massive success of Titanic, and while she certainly is great, the story seems very condensed in its telling. It jumps to make up for time spent elsewhere, feeling it needs to hurry because it's only got so much tim... read moree left. The ending felt sprung out of nowhere as Bea had just recovered from being sick, and oh, all of a sudden, "we've got the tickets, we need to go home."
    After all that though, I really enjoyed watching this for they low key qualities. Winslet is just amazing to watch. Her simplicity is riveting. The girls who played her two daughters were charming and seemed normal (which, child actors almost always seem to have "kinks"). Said, who played her love interest, was charming in his role and did exactly what he needed to do. The scenery was exiquisite, and being shot in location, the reality of it is very compelling. It's like it's a real story, and not one just being told to you through a camera.
  • flixsterbum
    December 24, 2007
    flixsterbum
    I think what I like most about this movie is that Kate Winslet followed up her phenomenal success with "Titanic" with this so un-"Titanic" role in a very un-"Titanic" movie. This isn't a Hollywood film. The plot structure's pretty loose, the characters are pretty complex, and e... read moreven the subject matter is pretty non-mainstream. What is great about Winslet is that with her charm and natural beauty, she can make a questionably unlikeable character likeable. As a mother dragging her kids through Morocco as she tries to "find herself", this role could very well have painted the mother in a selfish, wreckless light. But through a strong script and great work by Winslet, it doesn't come off that way. I didn't necessarily agree with her way of life, but I also felt that she had good intentions both for herself and her children. And the two little girls pretty much define "precocious". The shots of Morocco are pretty to look at, as well. If you're a Kate Winslet fan, definitely worth a look.

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Critic Reviews

Lisa Alspector
April 27, 2012
Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader

The fusion of dream sequences and evocative landscapes makes the characters' feverish sense of living at the edge of reality contagious. Full Review

Lisa Schwarzbaum
September 7, 2011
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

Kate Winslet, luscious in a brilliantly colored caftan and flushed from the heat of an African sun, makes a beautiful hippie, circa 1972, in Hideous Kinky. Full Review

Lisa Nesselson
March 26, 2009
Lisa Nesselson, Variety

Kate Winslet continues an uninterrupted line of fine performances with the modest yet affecting Hideous Kinky. Full Review

Peter Rainer
August 7, 2004
Peter Rainer, New York Magazine

It augurs well for the long-term integrity of her career that Winslet in this movie doesn't try to ingratiate herself with the audience. Full Review

J. Hoberman
January 1, 2000
J. Hoberman, Village Voice

Thanks in part to Kate Winslet's adventurous performance, it's a more vivid and even affecting movie than it deserves to be. Full Review

James Berardinelli
January 1, 2000
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

While there are all the usual misadventures and colorful characters, the mother/daughter and sister/sister bonds form the gel that holds everything together and gives Hideous Kinky a unique identity. Full Review

Charles Taylor
January 1, 2000
Charles Taylor, Salon.com

Winslet suffers from the movie's inability to give a fuller picture of Julia, and in some ways she just seems too grounded, too sensible to carry off the character's flightiness. Full Review

Janet Maslin
January 1, 2000
Janet Maslin, New York Times

Ms. Winslet movingly captures Julia in all her obliviousness and optimism, then watches how she awakens in ways she least expected. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The movie's tension comes from our own uneasiness about the mother, who with the best intentions seems to be blundering into trouble. Full Review

Ruthe Stein
January 1, 2000
Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle

Screenwriter Billy MacKinnon had to have struggled to write convincing dialogue about searching for spiritual enlightenment. Much of what comes out of Julia's mouth sounds like babble. Full Review

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Hideous Kinky Trivia

  • What movie did Kate Winslet choose to do instead of Shakespeare in Love and later regretted?  Answer »
  • Name the actress common to these movies: Heavenly Creatures, Hideous Kinky, Holy Smoke  Answer »
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  • Which British actress starred in the films Hideous Kinky, Quills and The Life of David Gale?  Answer »
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