| Kate
Winslet’s Titanic follow-up
is the story of Julia, a young mother of
two who leaves her wandering poet husband
in London and hauls her children off to
Marrakech, Morocco in 1972. In the
Northern African country, Julia hopes to
find enlightenment as a Sufi, but
generally neglects the needs of her kids
along the way. Oh, yeah - the title is
not an indicator of how Julia likes her
men; it comes from a nonsense word game
played by the children. Bea
(Bella Riza), the older of the children
at 9, still remembers London and longs
for a more stable and civilized life for
her and her family, dreaming of one day
wearing a uniform and attending school.
Lucy (Carrie Mullan) is 7 and can’t
remember living outside the sumptuous
desert surroundings. But both girls are
quite upset when their dad sends them a
Christmas present intended for one of his
other families (which included, I think,
a replica of Denis Irwin’s
Manchester United football kit). Also of
concern to the girls is Julia’s very
open relationship with a local street
performer named Bilal (Saïd Taghmaoui, Hate).
Based on Esther
Freud’s novel (yes, Sigmund’s
granddaughter) and directed by wily
Scotsman Gillies MacKinnon (Regeneration),
Kinky is likely to draw comparisons
to The English Patient, but it
doesn’t live up to the analogy. Its
story is very linear, offering virtually
no peaks or dips, and would be rather
boring were it not for the wonderful
performances from the children, who both
make their acting debuts in this film.
1:45 -
for nudity and adult situations
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