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Holy Man
A charismatic guru proves a smash on a shopping network, but does he have more to sell than mere platitudes? Broad satire starring Eddie Murphy, Jeff Goldblum and Kelly Preston
Holy Man is one of Eddie Murphy's post-transsexual hitchhiker pictures. As such, it is a film out to upset no one and keen to prove that Mr Murphy is a good, decent, average American who doesn't have a thing for men in dresses. As he said at the time, he only picked up him/her up because she/he was a damsel/dude in distress. Murphy stars as G, a Deepak Chopra-style guru who has easy answers to even the most difficult of questions. A personable chap, G literally bumps into home shopping network exec Ricky Hayman (Goldblum) who offers the hair-shy shaman a job with his ailing channel. Since he likes both Ricky and his other half Kate (Preston), G offers to help out only for his joie de vivre to create all sorts of chaos. But while Ricky might have issues with his new acquisition, he's powerless to complain about the sky-rocketing ratings. Perhaps primed as a polite satire on those American mainstays religion and consumerism, Holy Man is rendered stale by the handling of journeyman director Stephen Herek (Mr Holland's Opus, Into The Blue) and a surprisingly naive script from Tom Schulman (Dead Poets Society). With no one keen on upsetting the status quo, we're never in danger of having to rethink our lives - a fact that turns satire into observational comedy in a brief, sad instant. The tame approach also undermines the unsubtle performances. When a film's bigger than life you can afford to cast Jeff Goldblum - a weird presence in even the most normal of circumstances - and allow Murphy to go over-the-top. Surround them with bland performers such as Kelly Preston and 'Will & Grace's' Eric McCormack and their excesses become irksome in the extreme. A rare miss for Murphy at the box office, one might like to think Holy Man's relative failure would have persuaded the actor to reshape his career. But presumably still spooked by his social faux pas, the star continues to play it safe, meaning we the audience have had to suffer through Dr. Dolittle sequel after Nutty Professor follow-up. Still, he's good as the talking donkey in Shrek, isn't he? Verdict Leaves you wondering whether there really is a God. |
