You Go, Guru! -- That View-Time Religion: Eddie Murphy Does Some Soulful Selling In `Holy Man'

Movie review XXX "Holy Man," with Eddie Murphy, Jeff Goldblum, Kelly Preston. Directed by Stephen Herek from a script by Tom Schulman. Several theaters. "PG" - Parental guidance suggested; mild profanity.

Watching Hollywood embrace a new religion is a lot like watching teenagers get a new video game. They're entranced by the game until they figure out how to beat it, then consign it to a shelf with the other old cartridges.

In "Holy Man," director Stephen Herek and talented screenwriter Tom Schulman create one of these theologies out of whole cloth, but still . . . there's something at the very core of the film that elevates it above the usual "have I got a doctrine for you," L.A. school of moviemaking.

Eddie Murphy plays a wandering pilgrim named "G" who happens upon two home-shopping-channel producers fixing a flat alongside a highway. It's immediately clear that G has a certain insight. His religious instruction varies, from parables about starfish that come straight out of an "In Pursuit of Excellence" seminar to a feel-good, just-go-hug-yourself philosophy.

Fortunately, that kind of stuff sells. The couple, Ricky (Jeff Goldblum) and Kate (Kelly Preston), use G's sincerity and earnestness to help huck products on their beleaguered Good Buys Home Shopping network. G's an instant hit, saving Ricky's job and becoming a national sensation. Meanwhile, Ricky becomes a hit with Kate and they break a couple of steadfast rules about romance and co-workers.

Once all of this happens, and it happens with relative ease and about halfway through the film, there appears to be absolutely nowhere for the story to go. But the film doubles back, discarding the cut-out villain who seems the likely ultimate protagonist and dispensing with the "find out the mysterious man's past" cliche, too. That leaves just G, Ricky and Kate to fill up screen time.

Fortunately, Goldblum is Ricky. His character is so on the ropes, with his job, his bills and his life, that the role doesn't allow Goldblum to slide by with his patented Nyquil school of droopy acting. He's also quite funny. His reactions are precise and languorous, pent-up and immediate; it's the best work he's done since "The Fly." His romance with Kate isn't particularly believable, but it's not a critical misstep.

What Goldblum does get you to buy into is Ricky's transformation and possible redemption, and it becomes the film's cause. In "Annie Hall," Goldblum's line was "I forgot my mantra," but as Ricky, his mantra is his lifeline. We first see him sweating out a self-affirmation credo in a coat closet. Ricky wants to be the best man he can be, but he has a very limited view of what that really means. Goldblum seems to know, however. Without him, the film is nothing more than a collection of beliefs and tenets culled from the holy works of the Hallmark card collection.

Murphy, thankfully, has only one role in this film, not his standard three, but he devotes himself entirely to that limited presence.

Murphy has the sense to make G sound and act human; there will be no angel-touching from him. G isn't some great mystic; he's an individual with some self-restraint and common sense, even old-fashioned ideas about life. When Murphy's performing G's soliloquies, you feel a connection to this actor. He may not mean a word he's saying, but ever so briefly, you want to believe along with him. It's a great sales pitch.

Preston's role is limited to Jiminy Cricket-in-a-skirt territory. She's Ricky's conscience, trying to help him find the right way. Whether the role was simply written that way, or Preston simply plays her that way, she's the least interesting of the three pivotal characters, and the least humorous.

Ironically, the film actually seems to covet the worldly success and materialism it says it deplores. It never raises itself above a kind of self-determinism as far as philosophy goes, and it doesn't seem aware of the contradictions.

But despite all this, there's still something at the core of "Holy Man." As you watch Ricky sweat out his mantra of success in a closet, and watch him come to appreciate that that kind of business success isn't worth a cubic zirconia, you realize just what is at the core of "Holy Man." It has a soul.