"Enlightenment Guaranteed" is a feel-good comedy in the grand tradition of so many feel-good comedies: it is neither funny, nor does it make the viewer feel any better for having seen it. I have read some reviews that say it is profound and edgy, but I believe those reviewers have mistaken non-English dialogue for depth and the stunningly bad hand-held video cinematography for artistic purity.
Uwe is a kitchen salesman in Munich who likes his sleep and who loves his kids and has a very Western outlook on life. His brother Gustav is a Feng Shui consultant who structures his life around Zen meditation. When Uwe's wife leaves with the kids, Gustav takes him along on a trip to Japan, to the Monzen monastery near Tokyo.
Actually, the first hour where the brothers lose all their money and can't find their hotel and wander around lost in Tokyo is fairly amusing. The brothers don't speak Japanese, and the locals don't speak German. The only way they can communicate is in English, which neither the brothers nor most of the locals have a firm grasp of. Especially funny is when Gustav is forced into singing a German-language version of the disco hit "I Will Survive" for train fare.
But then the brothers eventually find the monastery and the film grinds to a halt. I guess the audience is supposed to be surprised that the "rigid Westerner" Uwe is more open-minded and better able to adapt to monasticism than the new-agey Gustav. Knowing as I do that Zen is about being connected rather than being detached from reality, that plot twist was not shocking to me. And seeing them perform the same rituals over and over again wasn't enlightening or meditative, it was simply numbing. And there are too many missed avenues of exploration. For instance: both brothers drive their wives away by making their wives do all the work at home; they never discuss this topic, and it fades away in the first half of the film. Instead, they keep chanting, cleaning, and making meaningless video diaries ad nauseum.
Some people say when praising this film that no Hollywood movie factory would ever make something like this. But I ask: is that necessarily a bad thing? 5 out of 10
Uwe is a kitchen salesman in Munich who likes his sleep and who loves his kids and has a very Western outlook on life. His brother Gustav is a Feng Shui consultant who structures his life around Zen meditation. When Uwe's wife leaves with the kids, Gustav takes him along on a trip to Japan, to the Monzen monastery near Tokyo.
Actually, the first hour where the brothers lose all their money and can't find their hotel and wander around lost in Tokyo is fairly amusing. The brothers don't speak Japanese, and the locals don't speak German. The only way they can communicate is in English, which neither the brothers nor most of the locals have a firm grasp of. Especially funny is when Gustav is forced into singing a German-language version of the disco hit "I Will Survive" for train fare.
But then the brothers eventually find the monastery and the film grinds to a halt. I guess the audience is supposed to be surprised that the "rigid Westerner" Uwe is more open-minded and better able to adapt to monasticism than the new-agey Gustav. Knowing as I do that Zen is about being connected rather than being detached from reality, that plot twist was not shocking to me. And seeing them perform the same rituals over and over again wasn't enlightening or meditative, it was simply numbing. And there are too many missed avenues of exploration. For instance: both brothers drive their wives away by making their wives do all the work at home; they never discuss this topic, and it fades away in the first half of the film. Instead, they keep chanting, cleaning, and making meaningless video diaries ad nauseum.
Some people say when praising this film that no Hollywood movie factory would ever make something like this. But I ask: is that necessarily a bad thing? 5 out of 10