Okay, here's the deal. I'm gonna go way out on a limb here and make a prediction. I've never been overly great at this sort of thing, as my, uh, sports wagering analyst, Dwight "Night Light" Falburton, can swear to. I call him once a week with my, uh, guesses as to who I think will win during the week, and Night Light will snicker and say, "Hey, it's your money, Doc." Then, come Monday, I drive by the Denny's by the Highway 29 exit and give Night Light an assorted packet of dead presidents. I think I put Dwight's daughter Miranda through secretarial school, thanks to college football and the pre-1991 Atlanta Braves.
But, I'm pretty sure about this one. I know I risk angering more than a few of my female friends, but I have to tell the truth. Here goes:
True, Brad Pitt is a hunky man-chunk. True, Brad Pitt is a horn-honkin' big star. True, Brad Pitt can act his way out of a paper sack. But, friends and neighbors, if I told you Brad Pitt is going to win an Oscar® for his new movie, Seven Years In Tibet, I'd be a big fat liar. True, he won't win. And, all truth included, it's not really his fault.
Seven Years in Tibet is the story of Heinrich Harrer (Brad Pitt), an Austrian mountain climber that would rather ascend the sides of cliffs than care about the onslaught of war and his pregnant wife. He and his guide Peter (David Thewlis) set out to conquer a treacherous Himalayan peak known as Nanga Parbat. During the climb, they're nearly waxed by an avalanche, WW2 pops up, and the boys find themselves fenced into a British POW camp. They escape and, along their way to freedom, wander astray into a quiet village, and earn acceptance by the isolated people of Tibet.
The young Dalai Lama spots them through his telescope one day and becomes curious about the newcomers, so he has them summoned to his palacial digs. Soon the holy child-holy man-holy god is taken with Heinrich, calling him "Yellow Hair", and asking him to build a moviehouse and teach him all about the outside world.
Thankfully, this movie doesn't become "The English Patient with Climbing Gear," a fear I had from the minute I heard about it. It does, however, suffer the same problems I had with that other movie. The interesting part of the flick doesn't start until about 70 minutes in. The real story, the one for conscious folk, doesn't appear 'til the Dalai Lama clocks in. Yep, I cared more about the tale of a 14-year-old kid who's a god to millions of people than I did about some blonde Nazi mountain climber. Played by Jamyang Wangchuk, the son of a Bhutan diplomat, the Dalai Lama is a fascinating sport. His innocence and grins are charming, his vocabulary is infinitely wiser than his years, and his yearning desire to know about the outside world is both childishly dreamy and tragically sad. I was reminded of Bertulucci's The Last Emporer, and that imprisoned holy child whose dreams were also fed by a tutor.
The waste here is with Pitt himself. His acting isn't wretched, but he's dog paddling in deep creek here. He just doesn't look ready for self-realization and personal growth. His purty-boy looks show no wear from inner demons, and his emotional range is dialed to two extremes: Colonel Klink for the first half, and The Brave Little Toaster for the second half. You gotta give him credit, though, for at least seeing it through. I doubt if this thing would even have gotten made if not for Pitt's superstar clout.
I do applaud Jean-Jacques Annaud, though, for making another visually beautiful movie. Annaud has the eye of a master artist, finding the highlights in every shot possible. He loves taming the untamable. His IMAX 3D film Wings of Courage was the first true masterpiece in that newborn cinematic arena. He invented an entire language in Quest for Fire, and turned a wild animal into Olivier in The Bear. Unfortunately, here, his talent for conquering the impasse doesn't fit the scale here. The mountain climbing scenes are standard fare, and the Harrer's inner struggle is barely displayed. Harrer may have become a better person for knowing the boy-god, but he keeps the secret to himself in this movie.
If your movie tastes run to the travelogue set, then this thing will treat your pupils nicely. An impatient viewer, though, may find himself or herself suffering through the Seinfeld "English Patient" head flop that Elaine did so well. Brad Pitt fans will have plenty to drool over, since he's onscreen for 99% of the film, and remains shampooed and conditioned throughout. If you're wanting a deeper look into Harrer and his struggle with his life, well, you might want to write a term paper on the dude.
The most interesting note, here, though, is that Pitt and Annaud may have unintentionally made a $70 million commercial for Scorsese's Kundun, coming later this year. In that film, the focus is on the most interesting character in Seven Years, the Dalai Lama, the child who would be God. And come Oscar time, I'd bet, er, invest my predictions with Night Light, that Marty the Master will bring home more hardware than the Yellow Hair. You can bet on that.
Copyrighted image courtesy of Mandalay Entertainment.
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under the knife