About Susan Kandell
Location: Dallas
Occupation: filmmaker, film fest admin.
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Posts: 61
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G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G...That’s me singing. True – it’s a one note song. But that doesn’t make it any less a song. Or less a good tune. And so it is with The Love Guru. It’s a one-note song filled with sight (and sound) gags and silly acronyms. And although I hate to admit it – I laughed. And so did everyone else in the audience.
Welcome back, Austin, er, I mean Mike. We’ve been waiting patiently for you. How long has it been? I’ll tell ya how long - over 5 years, not counting voice-overs like Shrek and Cat in the Hat (gosh, I wasn’t supposed to mention that!). And I was hoping for something with a little more substance, but as a big Wayne’s World/SNL fan – I’ll take what I can get. And what we get is a predictable comedy that still made me giggle. I must be regressing. Even sophomoric jokes about alligator soup (make it snappy!) made me snicker.
The film opens with a voice-over by Morgan Freeman retelling the story of how Guru Pitka (Mike Myers) has come to be known as the master of love. It’s actually a sight-gag involving a voice-over machine (looking suspiciously like an old Wollensak vintage reel-to-reel tape recorder) utilizing Freeman’s mellifluous voice. Within two minutes we are introduced to the first of the many clever book titles the Love Guru is pushing on his devotees; If You’re Happy and You Know It ………..Think Again! I chuckled when I read that. I did. Really. And you will too.
The movie meanders through a plot that heads in two different directions at once. The first involves a life-long rivalry with real-life guru Deepak Chopra, played admirably by (amazingly enough) Deepak Chopra. It seems that the little American boy (Myers) who was left at the gates of an Indian ashram was raised side by side with Chopra by the crossed-eyed Guru Tugginmypuddha (Ben Kingsley). Those eyes had to be computer generated – even Kingsley wouldn’t go so far for his craft!
The other story-line revolves around the sweet n’ sassy owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team Jane Bullard (a sweet n’ sassy Jessica Alba) and how she enlists Pitka’s help in removing the Bullard curse. Justin Timberlake does his best as L.A. Kings’ legendary goalie, Jacques “Le Coq” Grande especially when singing Celine Dion songs. But Romany Malco (splendid in Weeds) as the “Tiger Woods of hockey” just skates through his role. Well, he is a hockey player, for chrissakes!
The film is peppered with real-life celebrity cameos, including Jessica Simpson, Kanye West, Mike Myers and an uncredited Mariska Hargitay. Her name is oft uttered in vain and it might have been funnier if she hadn’t shown up. Perhaps she felt the same way and had her name removed from the credits. We can only speculate on that one!
The music is an eclectic selection of tunes ranging from an interesting rendition of 9 To 5 to Bohemian Rhapsody (wink-wink). In fact there’s a plethora of in-jokes and many of the actors have a hard time not cracking up while saying their lines. Either they got tired of retakes or director Marco Schnabel (in his feature film directorial debut) just threw up his hands and gave up. It’s probably the one film in which the audience could forgive this kind of behavior by actors.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one last, but important cast member and that would be Verne Troyer (best known to the world as Mini-Me) as Coach Punch Cherkov. Say that last name three times fast to get a taste of the overall humor. I saved the best for last – as he has the best (and last) line in the film. But it occurs during the credits – so stay put and you’ll be sure to exit laughing.
