Enlightenment Guaranteed

Color, NR (mature themes, language), 108 min., VHS $79.95, DVD $29.95, German with English subtitles

First Run: L, June 2001, NA

Street: Sept. 24, Prebook: Sept. 4

Cast: Uwe Ochsenknecht, Gustav--Peter Wohler, Petra Zieser, Ulrike Kriener

Director: Doris Dorrie

Story Line: Middle--aged salesman Uwe (Ochsenknecht) plunges into despair when his wife takes their kids and disappears. Searching for some meaning to life, he accompanies his brother Gustav (Wohler), a feng shui consultant, on a pilgrimage to a Buddhist monastery outside Tokyo.

Bottom Line: Dorrie's fish-out-of-water comedy has many funny moments. It's extremely perceptive and, at times, downright goofy. Uwe and Gustav, ostensibly educated and worldly, have misadventures reminiscent of those experienced by Laurel and Hardy in movie comedies of decades ago. They are suckered into paying an enormous bar tab, have their debit cards gobbled up by a malfunctioning ATM, steal a tent and take up residence in a park and become incompetent waiters in a Japanese beer garden. So much for the path to spiritual enlightenment. Dorrie clearly recognizes the humorous potential in cultural incongruities, but she deflates her German protagonists on their home ground. In one scene, the depressed Uwe sighs to his sister, "I want to die," and she shoots back, "Who doesn't?" This title will take some intensive plugging, but it's guaranteed not only to enlighten but to entertain as well. --Ed Hulse

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