‘Love Guru’ review: No enlightenment, few laughs Posted on June 20th
If Richard Attenborough ever follows up his Charlie Chaplin biopic with a project dedicated to cross-eyed wonder Ben Turpin, casting the leading role won’t be hard. Ben Kingsley’s the man!
The strenuous new Mike Myers vehicle “The Love Guru” is all about Myers, of course, but the man who played Gandhi grabs what he can in a supporting role, that of optically challenged Guru Tugginmypuddha (unrelated to Guru Thesearethejokesfolks), tough-love inspiration to Myers’ character. The movie showcases Guru Pitka, the “neo-Eastern self-help spiritualist” who dreams of zooming past Deepak Chopra in the eyes of a grateful book-buying public.
At one point Kingsley oversees a punishing round of “stink-mop.” His disciples, including the American-born Pitka, whack each other with mops soaked in urine. Urine is very, very big in “The Love Guru,” as are boogers and elephant feces and dwarf insults endured by Verne Troyer, who played Mini-Me in Myers’ “Austin Powers” franchise. He portrays the much-abused coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. (Yes, this is all part of the same movie.) Jessica Alba is the team owner, who hires the Love Guru to get star player Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) out of the love dumps and into competitive fighting trim for the Stanley Cup finals.
Throughout “The Love Guru,” Alba and other performers are required to crack up in reaction-shot close-up at the antics and trash-talk wordplay of Pitka. “I haven’t laughed like this in such a long time,” Alba says. Comedies tend to work better when the supporting characters don’t set up the main event quite so shamelessly.
Trackback URL