A lightweight, but enjoyable enough diversion, "Holy Man" offers some decent laughs and occasional touching moments, but isn't the laugh-fest most are probably expecting after seeing the film's promotional commercials. While one can't fault the film for not living up to its advertising campaign (different creative entities usually handle the two), it's certainly not as funny as it should be or could have been given the premise.
Considering the massive success and proliferation of the shopping networks that have popped up across the country on the nation's cable channels, along with the products they often hawk, such material is certainly ripe for the picking.
Thankfully avoiding the spoof genre that's recently been firing mostly blanks ("BASEketball," "Mafia!"), the filmmaking team of director Stephen Herek ("Mr. Holland's Opus," "101 Dalmatians") and Oscar winning screenwriter Tom Schulman ("Dead Poets Society"), has opted for the more standard comedy approach to poking fun at that industry. Inserting their jabs into a relatively conventional story, the effects are often amusing, but only occasionally quite funny.
The film does offer a spate of fictitious consumer products, a few of which are inherently funny, while most of the others are only mildly amusing, as well as a range celebrities, such as Dan Marino, Betty White, Florence Henderson and others, to hawk them.
Ranging from James Brown dealing his "I've fallen and I can't get up" Soul Survivor alarm (which emits his patented vocal outbursts), Soupy Sales promoting a glue gun (where we see his "son" glued to the ceiling), Marino selling an under the hood auto oven, and other products such as the "Little Squirt" bidet and some samurai knives reportedly authenticated by the former owner's present day descendants, such scenes are cute and/or amusing, but rarely induce any deep belly laughs.
After a few of those, most moviegoers will find that those scenes aren't as clever as they could have been. After all, "informercials" have been targeted before. Who can forget Dan Aykroyd and the Bass-O-Matic from the early days of "Saturday Night Live?"
With all of the products sold on TV, I also found myself wishing that an even greater range of similar TV material, such as the psychic networks, the real estate gurus and, of course, Mr. Tony Robbins, would have been similarly (but more creatively and humorously) skewered.
Even so, film's best and funniest moment comes from the scenes you may have already seen in the film's commercials. Murphy's character, roaming the expansive network set and dropping in on unsuspecting celebrities hawking their goods, momentarily stops at Morgan Fairchild's segment.
Promoting an electricity-based facial toner, Fairchild's face is wired to this device and we know it's only a matter of time before Murphy will give her the zap. Despite having repeatedly seen the moments where her face exaggeratedly contorts and vibrates from the shock, the scene is still quite funny and a big crowd pleaser.
Nearly as good is a scene where Goldblum must exaggeratedly pantomime his intentions while trying silently to tell his assistant -- who's posing as a doctor talking to Murphy -- what to say to him. Certainly silly, but funny, the scene works and one only wishes there were more similar moments in the rest of the film.
Instead, Herek and Schulman have opted to go the "touchy-feely" route, hoping to hit the same inspirational notes that the screenwriter effectively mined with Robin Williams in "Dead Poets Society." While the filmmakers have thrown in a few nice moments -- that, in fact, finally give the film some much needed depth and resonance -- more often than not they feel artificially forced into the overall story. It's as if the screenplay blueprint commanded "Insert moving or inspirational moment here."
It also must have prompted a music cue, for during such scenes Alan Silvestri's score prominently rises up to the occasion to remind us that we're watching one of those sentimental or inspirational moments. Despite all of that, the film never quite succeeds with the material that made the marginally similar Steve Martin movie, "Leap of Faith," work so well.
Unlike that film that toyed with whether Martin's character was a fraud, a greedy businessman or perhaps even something of a divinely touched human being, this film never tries to explore that issue. Although some early scenes suggest there's perhaps a tangible "other worldly" nature about G -- the "wading" through heavy traffic and his broken watch trick -- that topic is quickly abandoned and never again reexamined.
While such a dismal of relatively important plot information is an interesting approach to take, in the end it leaves Murphy's character as enigmatic as it was at the beginning. I suppose some moviegoers won't mind that continued mystery element, but many will probably wish they knew a bit more about G.
The performances are enjoyable and good across the board, but certainly not spectacular. Murphy ("The Nutty Professor," "Dr. Dolittle") gives his version of a subdued, "kinder and gentler" performance, and while likeable and featuring that ever-winning huge grin, he doesn't deliver the laugh-a-minute performance some may think is coming.
Jeff Goldblum ("Jurassic Park," "Independence Day"), one of my personal favorite thespians to watch, also delivers a winning performance in his role. Having toned down his near stuttering, scattershot-like delivery that some moviegoers enjoy (such as in "Jurassic"), but others find a bit irritating, his cautious -- and often slyly funny -- reactions are the perfect counter to Murphy's character.
Kelly Preston ("Jerry Maguire," "Addicted To Love") is also likeable and charming in her role, although her character's professional status is somewhat undermined by the filmmakers' apparent need to dress her in tightfitting outfits throughout the production to make her constantly "easy on the eyes" for the men in the audience.
Lightweight and fluffy, the film manages to be moderately entertaining despite its somewhat heavy-handed approach to sentimentality and the overall lack of sustained or big laughs. Whenever a near capacity audience is stone silent throughout large chunks of a reported comedy, it isn't difficult to realize that something's missing.
Even so, you can't really hate this film, and for the most part it's as enjoyable as a wad of cotton candy at a local fair. It's colorful and pretty and tastes good going down, but it doesn't take long before you realize there's not much to it and once it's gone, you've pretty much forgotten about it. As such, we give "Holy Man" a not quite heavenly 5 out of 10.
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