Cast: Ying Ruocheng, Alex Wiesendanger, Keanu Reeves, Chris Isaak, Bridget Fonda
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Producer: Jeremy Thomas
Screenplay: Mark Peploe and Rudy Wurlitzer
Cinematography: Vittorio Storaro
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto
U.S. Distributor: Miramax Films
At the core of Little Buddha lie questions of belief. Can you acknowledge reincarnation as a viable solution to what lies beyond death? Can you believe in the search for Cosmic Oneness as a central mystery of life? And, most importantly, can you accept Keanu Reeves as the Buddha dude?
Little Buddha has two stories to tell. The first follows the quest of a group of monks, led by Lama Norbu (Ying Ruocheng) to seek out the reincarnated spirit of a great Buddhist teacher, Lama Dorje. Norbu and his fellows believe they have found Dorje's spirit residing within a Seattle boy named Jesse Conrad (Alex Wiesendanger). While Alex is enchanted with the monks and their way of life, his parents, Dean (Chris Isaak) and Lisa (Bridget Fonda), are wary, and that wariness turns into near-hostility when Norbu announces that he would like to take Jesse back with him to Bhutan to be tested.
The second tale is the fable of how a prince named Siddhartha (Keanu Reeves) became the great spiritual leader Buddha. Framed within the modern-day portions of Little Buddha, this segment is presented as a children's story told to Jesse.
The strength of Little Buddha is the ideals that it presents, and the way it forces us to confront questions of spirituality and existence. Director Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky) has never been one to avoid probing themes, and the subject matter of Little Buddha is no different. There's a fair amount of material to stimulate the intellect.
Unfortunately, it's just the intellect that is stimulated. As beautifully photographed and intelligently-written as the movie is, it has no emotional depth or appeal, and is often as cold and clinical as its gray depiction of Seattle. Perhaps the problem is the twenty minutes cut from the final print (there's a sequence involving the bankruptcy and death of a friend of the Conrads that has been trimmed significantly). Or maybe it's the use of a wooden Chris Isaak in a key role. Whatever the reason, however, the characters never connect with the audience, causing Little Buddha to test the viewer's attention span when it should instead be soaring.
There's also a question about Little Buddha's intent. At first, the center of the picture seems to be young Jesse's spiritual enlightenment as he comes to understand the monks' way of life. This, after all, is the whole point of his learning Siddhartha's story. However, as the film progresses, the focus wanders, and Jesse's presence becomes less critical. Dean's own crisis of the soul, which forms a subplot, is resolved in an oblique and unsatisfactory manner.
So what about Keanu Reeves? Choosing one of today's least able (but most popular) actors in such a critical role might at first seem bizarre (to say the least), but in a weird way, it sort of works. This isn't because Reeves has suddenly learned how to act, but with his part of the story nestled in the cozy frame of a fable, his stilted style isn't harmful. All that he needs to do is look nice -- which he does -- and not flub his lines. His failed attempt at an Indian accent is a bit distracting, however.
With ragged transitions and a too-long running time, the editing of Little Buddha is suspect. Considering the otherwise-impeccable production standards, it's odd that this aspect should have been handled so imperfectly. Conventional wisdom indicates that if you're aware of something, it's a problem, and that's the case with the cutting and pasting in Little Buddha.
For those who can get past Keanu Reeves and Chris Isaak, and who don't mind viewing a film that opens an emotional gulf between itself and its audience, Little Buddha has themes and images worth exploring. And, while no one will debate the impressiveness of cinematographer Vittorio Storaro's work, more than nicely-framed images are mandated for this film to succeed in its exploration of spiritual and metaphysical concepts.
© 1994 James Berardinelli