Verdict
Summary
Visually beautiful and composed with gorgeous colors and a great many extras in period outfits, Little Buddha believes itself to be much richer and more important than it ends up being and feeling. Director Bernardo Bertolucci gives the film a sumptuous visual pallet, but the film ironically lacks a spirit and a soul, choosing instead a very grounded and earthly approach to a rather simple story that requires more patience than it does faith to enjoy
Plot:
An American boy and his parents are taken to Tibet by Tibetan monks, who believe the boy may be a reincarnated teacher and holy man.
Review:
A Tibetan Lama (holy person and teacher) dies, leaving his closest follower, Lama Norbu (Ruocheng Ying) in a position to scour the world to try to find the Lama’s reincarnated form. The quest takes him to America, where he is drawn to a blonde American boy named Jesse (Alex Wiesendanger) who was born at the right moment, in the right month, right day, and right time of the morning to suggest that he might very well be the reincarnated Lama. When the monk tries to convince the boy’s parents (played by Bridget Fonda and Chris Isaac) of this, the parents surprisingly entertain the notion that their son might, in fact, be the reincarnated Buddha. Jesse has always been a very perceptive, intuitive child, and because the monk is so convincing, they allow him to take them all to Nepal where the boy is treated as a prince and given tests and trials to prove that he is who the monk says he might be. But the boy isn’t the only contender: There are two other boys – both Nepalese – who might, in theory, be the reincarnated Buddha. Meanwhile, we are treated to the tale of Siddhartha (played by an almost unrecognizable Keanu Reeves in heavy makeup), whose story is that of the young but maturing Buddha and how his life comes to intersect (sort of) with the three maybe-Buddhas in the present day.
Visually beautiful and composed with gorgeous colors and a great many extras in period outfits, Little Buddha believes itself to be much richer and more important than it ends up being and feeling. Director Bernardo Bertolucci gives the film a sumptuous visual pallet, but the film ironically lacks a spirit and a soul, choosing instead a very grounded and earthly approach to a rather simple story that requires more patience than it does faith to enjoy. It’s way overlong at 140 minutes (this is the director’s cut version rather than the shorter theatrical version, which ran just over two hours), and the performances are all adequate, but the roles don’t require much of the actors, so that’s not much of a note of praise as much as it is a note of efficiency. The cinematography is incredible, the score is adequate, and there’s really nothing to complain about other than the fact that the film is just … boring, and even a little pointless. Bertolucci’s previous film The Last Emperor was much better and covered similar ground.
Kino Lorber has just released a 4K Ultra HD / Blu-ray combo pack of Little Buddha, and it comes with an audio commentary by a film historian, plus archival interviews with Bertolucci, as well as one with a producer, a making-of feature, and a trailer and a slipcover. 4K enthusiasts will find the new HDR master to be of the utmost quality.
