Hideous Kinky film review

certificate_15

HIDEOUS KINKY

If the rather ambiguous title leaves you fearing some sort of unpleasant video nasty, worry not, this is nothing more horrifying in reality than the return of Blighty's flushed-cheek rose Kate Winslet to the screen, albeit with considerably less fanfare than her last outing, in which - had you forgotten - she nearly went submarine with that doomed transatlantic tub.

Playing the single mother of two young girls in the early 70s, Kate flees drab London town and a failed relationship for the exotic, sun-kissed promise of Morocco. And while daughters Lucy (Bella Riza) and Bea (Carrie Mullan) run amok in Marrakech, our heroine's trials and tribs are dramatically altered by the entrance of roguish Arab charmer Bilal (Said Taghmaoui).

Director Gilles MacKinnon's camera captures another spirited, subtle and sympathetic Winslet turn as well as the 70s soundtrack, Marrakech embodies just the right sort of alien wonder in which a romantic adventure of life, love and all that finding-oneself malarky might be staged, and with Taghmaoui's sly support and the girls neatly avoiding the brat factor, this is an atmospheric and rather seductive little number.