Brightest Young Things

Welcome to “Another Movie Guy?”! I review recent new releases, and then mention similar movies worth checking out. If all goes according to plan, you’ll have some new additions to your Netflix queue. Or someone with whom you can angrily disagree.

Enlighten Up! uses a broad approach to ask a deeply personal question. Director Kate Churchill wants to know whether yoga can help someone find happiness. Her method is not exactly scientific - she focuses on a single person, and his experience may differ wildly from yours or mine. Nonetheless, by looking at a myriad of ways one engages with yoga, she offers the novice a decent idea of what the practice entails. The warm, open personalities of all involved keep the movie from becoming too tedious. Still, I can't help but think that in the hands of a more thoughtful director, the final product would have been far more probing.

Churchill begins by talking about herself. She's been diligently practicing yoga for seven years, and has become wary of its growing popularity. Yoga indeed is a billion dollar industry, and some seem to overlook its introspective Eastern roots. The director only wonders whether yoga has any transformative power, so she begins a experiment. She finds Nick, an unemployed journalist in his late twenties. Nick never practiced yoga, and does not think he is particularly spiritual. Nonetheless, he agrees to be Churchill's guinea pig, so she follows him around for six months as he does yoga every day. He visits studios in New York, California, and  Hawaii. All the while Nick openly talks about his progress, and Churchill becomes increasingly frustrated. He shows no discernible change, and she thinks her guinea pig does not take the project seriously. Finally, the two travel to India, where Nick meets holy men who provide spiritual counsel.

The movie would not work without Nick. He is thoughtful and funny. More importantly, he's capable of articulating his thought process, and is open to even the nuttiest yogi. With his background as a journalist, he's not too intimidated by yoga's spiritual leaders, and asks tough questions. Nick runs into his share of new age nut jobs, the kind of caricatures that will never convince a skeptic. Churchill directs these scenes and others with a somewhat manipulative style. Sometimes it's all too clear she's editing an interview so it conforms to Nick's self-discovery narrative. Also, she does not trust the material to be interesting on its own, and even inserts cheesy sound effects to help things along. Not surprisingly, the movie only takes off once Nick reaches India. Maybe it's the effect of the country itself, but suddenly Nick's friendly skepticism gives way to something more profound. He begins a minor identity crisis, and even Churchill herself feels overwhelmed by the intensity of the experience. These scenes are the most interesting precisely because Churchill films with intimacy and genuine curiosity. It's a shame the movie's first half is not as engaging as its second.

I've always been a little bit curious about yoga, and whether these elaborate contortions accomplish what the zealots promise. Nick provides me with the answer I still suspect to be true. He ultimately concludes that  yoga does improve him physically, but not in any other dimension of his life. After all, even the most renowned yogis provide surprisingly practical advice, and do not necessarily advocate physical exercise.  Ultimately, if you are receptive to the subject, you'll find Enlighten Up! mostly entertaining, and sometimes insightful. You may want to learn more, even if you don't rush to the nearest studio and pick up a mat.

Here are other intriguing movies in which Americans grapple with foreign cultures:

Barcelona. We here at BYT unabashedly love Whit Stillman, the sardonic writer/director who specializes in young upper-crust characters, and while Barcelona is his weakest effort, it’s also his most visually striking. Ted (Taylor Nichols) is a neurotic WASP working in Barcelona. Like the character he played in Metropolitan, Ted likes to think of human interaction in the most abstract way possible - often to his detriment. Soon Ted gets an unexpected visitor: Fred (Chris Eigeman), his Naval officer cousin. Fred takes himself marginally less seriously but has his share of hang-ups – he loathes anti-Americanism, which is rampant in Spain. These two butt heads with the locals, often in amusing crude ways. Of course, they spend much of their time courting women, who prove to be frustratingly elusive (Mira Sorvino, still relatively unknown, is incredibly sexy as Marta). There is a backdrop of political strife throughout Barcelona, yet Stillman sharply focuses on his characters, and how they seem utterly incapable of any true connection. The plot is threadbare and few characters develop in any discernible way. As with all his movies, the real star is the dialog, which is witty and erudite, if not a little superficial. If you’re anything like me, you’ll relish the opportunity to watch good-looking people talk silly things in an amusing way.

The Razor’s Edge. I first became aware of this adaptation in the most unlikely of places – The Comedy Central Roast of Chevy Chase. In his hilariously scathing roast, Stephen Colbert discussed Chase’s lack of ambition, calling it refreshing in comparison to Bill Murray “who famously overreached  in The Razor’s Edge.” Having read the Maugham novel and wanting to judge for myself, I quickly put the movie at the top of my Netflix queue. Man, Colbert wasn’t kidding. Murray plays Larry, a young rich man with a strong upbringing. After being traumatized by WWI, he returns back to the states and abandons his earlier ambitions, much to the chagrin of his family and fiancée. Larry lives as an expat in Europe, and eventually moves onto India, where he continues his search for meaning. Murray plays the character with his typical deadpan approach. Clearly the tragedies of Larry’s life had a deep effect on him, and Murray makes it so that he’s impenetrable. Yes, we see some of his WWI experiences, yet they do not seem particularly harrowing, and Murray’s deeply introspective performance only exacerbates our confusion. As a result, he deflates any emotional impact. Some of the best characters, such as a rich uncle (Denholm Elliott) and the novel’s narrator, are respectively glossed over and written out of the screenplay. Despite some great moments (such as the uncle’s death scene), the production feels uneven overall. It’s a shame, really – I could see this adaptation serve is a turn-off for the book.

Outsourced. Josh Hamilton is as affable as any actor working right now, so he’s the perfect choice for this fish-out-of-water comedy. He plays Todd, a successful salesman who finds out he’s lost his job to outsourcing. To make matters worse, he must travel to India and train his replacement team. He has trouble adapting to the lifestyle, and the locals have trouble understanding his slang. He tells them their job is to sell “Kitsch to redneck schmucks,” and they stare dumbfounded. Rather unexpectedly, Todd meets Asha (Ayesha Dharker), a lovely young woman. Too bad an arranged marriage gets in the way of their budding romance. Director John Jeffcoat goes for gentle laughs – none of the comedy is dirty, and the chuckles are plentiful. There is a recurring joke that all the Indians mispronounce “Todd” as “toad.” Amidst the humor, India really does change Todd. Funny how a documentary like Enlighten Up! tries so earnestly to demonstrate the power of a country, and a lighthearted romantic comedy like Outsourced accomplishes the same with relatively little effort. It goes to show how strong screenplay and genuine chemistry have real power. Outsourced is not the best comedy you’ll see, or even one the most romantic, but I guarantee you’ll remember it fondly.

That's it for this week's "Another Movie Guy?"! Tune in next week when I'm an Iranian farmer overwhelmed by the big city.