Holy smoke

During a backpacking holiday in India, Ruth, a young Australian woman, experiences a spiritual awakening at an ashram. Convinced that she has found peace, harmony and purpose she decides to stay on with her newfound guru, much to the horror of her family in Australia. Luring her back to suburban Sydney on false pretences they employ the services of P.J., an American ‘cult-exiter’. The deprogramming encounter that takes place over three days in a shack on an isolated outback farm becomes a battle of wits and wills over spirituality and sexuality. Returning to the themes of dysfunctional family life that she focused on in her first feature “Sweetie”, Campion employs cultural stereotypes to contrast the exotic appeal of Eastern spiritualism for the idealistic Ruth, with her family’s lack of understanding and crassness. The film’s central concern with the search for the meaning of life is juxtaposed with comedic elements drawn from the repertoire of cliched Australian ‘types’ that were a commonplace of Australian cinema in the nineties, and moments of high melodrama. Though Campion clearly demonstrated her cinematic and technical proficiency, the narrative was considered by some critics to be somewhat clumsy and overambitious.