Loaded from her suburban Sydney home, backpacker Ruth Barron (Winslet) is so touched by an Indian guru that notwithstanding Tell no-one turning up with tales of dad’s imminent demise can’t charm her back. Ironically, mum’s own asthmatic reaction to Delhi leads to Ruth escorting her to Oz, where awaits wizard ‘cult exiter’ PJ Waters (Keitel), hired by the family to rid Ruth of her plans to change a certain of her mentor’s wives. His three-step system takes in the right in a cabin in the comeuppance, a suitably scorched, remote arena for a blazing battle of wills that takes them beyond standard power struggles into a heady realm of charity, abhor, worry and wish. With its switches in tone, from searing psycho-drama to broad, in the seventh heaven comedy, its sometimes purposeful, sometimes crooked description and its splendid hues, the film initially seems an efficient if uneven entertainment. As it progresses, however, with Ruth and PJ moving into endlessly murkier territory, it becomes easier to discern a thematic thread: how we’re all conditioned, and how we must interrogate traditional assumptions to discover our real selves. It’s brave, adventurous, refreshingly frank - qualities also marking the performances, particularly those of the leads.