THE AISLE SEAT - "HOLY MAN"
by Mike McGranaghan
Holy Man is an R-rated movie trapped in the body of a PG movie and screaming to be let out. It is a comedy that tries to satirize both New Age spirituality and the home shopping phenomenon. Eddie Murphy stars as a mystical guru who is lured into hawking door mats and chainsaws on a cable shopping channel. Any film that hires one of the funniest men in the world to take on two topics ripe for satire and then makes him hold back is misguided at best. Holy Man keeps threatening to break free, to become a no-holds-barred comedy, but it never does.
Although Murphy is top billed, the real star is Jeff Goldblum. He plays Ricky, an executive at a struggling home shopping channel. His boss, Mr. McBainbridge (Robert Loggia), has brought in a market analyst named Kate (Kelly Preston) to figure out what's wrong. Kate suggests that the channel needs a distinct personality - something to separate it from all the other home shopping channels on the dial. Ricky is instructed to find the station's personality or be out on his ear.
Soon afterward, Ricky and Kate meet a stranger named "G" (he stops kissing the ground long enough to help them change a flat tire). Through a rather long and contrived series of events, G ends up staying at Ricky's house for a few weeks. One afternoon, he finds his way onto the set as a shopping program is being broadcast live. From the second he appears on camera, the ratings increase. Kate and Ricky get the bright idea to have G host his own show. The potential home shopping savior is rather unpredictable, though, choosing to wander around and/or destroy the set while spouting touchy-feely philosophies. The merchandise starts moving anyway.
The first hour of Holy Man is focused on comedy. The film parodies home shopping, particularly the way stars often shamelessly hawk products (G accidentally electrocutes Morgan Fairchild, who is hooked up to some electric anti-wrinkle gizmo). I will admit to having participated in the home shopping process a couple of times, although there is always something the slightest bit cheesy about it. Sometimes the channels offer good stuff, but often you get a third-rate celebrity pitching a dubious product. Several famous faces appear in Holy Man to spoof exactly this sort of thing.
Although I laughed at some of this, I wish it had been more sharp-edged (a James Brown personal safety system that shouts "Good God!" when you press a button is too absurd even for home shopping). There are a few good ideas here, but the movie holds back, never allowing itself to go over-the-top the way it should. It holds back even more once G enters the picture. With the basic premise here, Murphy should have been able to come in and take over, turning "mild chuckle" material into "fall down laughing" hilarity. The film makes him restrain himself; G is far too calm to be genuinely mischievous. In his prime mode, Murphy is an anarchic performer who blows everything else off the screen. I don't know who thought he'd be a good choice to play a serene man of inner harmony.
Holy Man's first hour isn't great, but it's undoubtedly superior to the second hour. Rather than continue trying to make fun of home shopping or G's New Age weirdness, the movie tries to put a lump in your throat. One of the big problems with most comedies today is that they aren't content to just make you laugh; they want to give you the warm fuzzies, too (call it Billy Crystal Syndrome). I think one of the reasons There's Something About Mary has been so successful is that it makes laughter the first priority. Sure, it's a sweet picture with loads of charm, but never at the expense of comedy.
Holy Man, meanwhile, trots out all the feel-good cliches about doing the right thing, following your dream, and loving one another. You can predict every move the story makes. At one point, Ricky even goes on live TV to make a rambling, "heartfelt" speech about how it's wrong to exploit someone and how much he really loves Kate. And, of course, the live studio audience applauds wildly as this former cynic finds the joy in his own heart. Can someone please tell me what this has to do with making fun of home shopping? Holy Man was written by Tom Schulman, a screenwriter who has had a wildly erratic career (he won an Oscar for Dead Poets Society, but also penned 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag). With this script, Schulman seems to have been unsure about his goal: did he want to write a satire or a piece of pop spirituality? In the end, Holy Man works as neither.
This basic plot has been done before - outsider with strange talent is discovered, exploited, then allowed to live free. Edward Scissorhands (to name just one example) did the same kind of thing with a lot more originality. Holy Man tries to liven it up with some fresh satirical targets (and an admittedly funny performance from Jeff Goldblum). It never quite gels. This movie needed to be a scathing, uncensored satire of its subjects. Instead, it's a PG rated mediocrity that, instead of aiming to be hilarious, aims to be "nice."
(
out of four)
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