Cast: Eddie Murphy, Jeff Goldblum, Kelly Preston, Robert Loggia, Jon Cryer, Eric McCormack
Director: Stephen Herek
Producers: Roger Birnbaum, Tom Schulman
Screenplay: Tom Schulman
Cinematography: Adrian Biddle
Music: Alan Silvestri
U.S. Distributor: Hollywood Pictures
There's a trend among actor/comedians these days: start out wild and crazy, then metamorphose into a lovable, family-friendly figure. Exhibit A: Robin Williams. Exhibit B: Steve Martin. Exhibit C: Jim Carrey. There are others too, but these are the three best-known. Eddie Murphy, long recognized as one of America's most controversial comic personalities (remember Raw?), apparently looked at these men and decided that if they could do it, he could too. And voila… with the back-to-back releases of Doctor Dolittle and Holy Man, Murphy has made huge strides in transforming his image. It's unfortunate that both movies are bad.
I suppose that the premise of Holy Man – a religious guru becomes a nationwide phenomenon by dispensing advice as he hawks items on a home shopping channel – has some potential, albeit not as it's presented here. The best media-related parodies have always possessed razor-sharp edges. Consider two of the most acclaimed: Network and To Die For. Both have a take-no-prisoners attitude. Not so for Holy Man, which, in addition to lampooning television, wants to be a feel good experience that will cause everyone to walk out of the theater smiling. However, the two goals are fundamentally incompatible. The result is a poorly-focused motion picture characterized by limp satire and capped off by a final fifteen minutes that could send half of the audience into sugar shock. (Director Stephen Herek apparently likes this sort of crowd-pleasing posturing – he has employed it in two of his biggest successes to date, The Mighty Ducks and Mr. Holland's Opus.)
So how is this kinder, gentler Murphy? He's certainly likable. Sadly, he's also not especially funny. Oh, there are moments when his mild-mannered antics provoke a chuckle or two, but, compared to the ribald hilarity of some of his past projects, Holy Man seems emasculated. Part of the problem could be that the movie doesn't focus on Murphy's character of "G", but instead uses this '90s mystic as a plot element in a Jerry Maguire-style story about an advertising man who rediscovers his soul.
Jeff Goldblum, the lanky, long-legged actor who is the second-best thing about both Jurassic Park movies (the first, obviously, being the dinosaurs), plays Ricky Hayman, the man running the Good Buys Shopping Network, cable TV's lowest-rated pay-from-the-couch channel. When a new, bottom-line owner named McBainbridge (Robert Loggia, at his cigar-chomping best) arrives, he gives Ricky two weeks to turn things around, or he'll be out of a job. To help Ricky, McBainbridge has hired Kate Newell (Kelly Preston), an Ivy League graduate with big ideas. Nothing the duo tries works, however, until they put "G" on the air. The laid-back, gentle holy man, whom Ricky and Kate first met while fixing a flat on the shoulder of a Miami highway, is an instant success, but fame comes at a price.
As with most mediocre-at-best movies, Holy Man boasts a few high points – not enough to make the film worth viewing, but sufficient to prevent the theater from emptying before the end credits roll. Some of the fake infomercials are inspired. Not only are they amusing, but they capture the cheesy feel of the kind of "programming" that can't be avoided by channel surfers after midnight. At one point or another, we see James Brown (the "Soul Survival System"), Betty White (Clam perfume), Soupy Sales (a glue gun), and Morgan Fairchild (an electric facial beauty treatment) urging viewers to buy one product or another. Sadly, adding up all the time devoted to infomercial parodies amounts to about six minutes, or 5% of the total running time. That's less than is spent dwelling on the pseudo-religious, mystical mumbo-jumbo that "G" spouts whenever he's given the opportunity. (Although I do like the slogan for "The G-Spot", the show hosted by "G": "Philosophy, a higher state of consciousness, and non-stop shopping.")
Although Murphy fashions an appealing personality, the same cannot be said for Goldblum, who is mostly irritating (this, I suppose, is intentional, but that realization doesn't make it any easier to endure the performance). Not only does Goldblum radiate superciliousness, but the tics he employs make Ricky an annoying presence. Kelly Preston, who played the "bad girl" in Jerry Maguire, switches sides to be the "good girl" this time around. She is more credible as a success-driven shark.
Ultimately, I suppose I feel about Holy Man the way I do about the majority of so-called comedies that roll into and out of multiplexes on a regular basis. It isn't horrible, but it is dull and uninspired. While Murphy probably has what it takes to make the comedian-to-serious actor transition, he needs to do what Martin, Williams, and Carrey did: hold out for a good script. Jumping feet-first into something like Holy Man is not going to make the pilgrimage easier, just longer.
© 1998 James Berardinelli