SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud Starring Brad Pitt, David Thewlis, Jumyang Wangchuk, B.D. Wong and Lhakpa Tsamchoe Hello Dalai! After numerous visits from the Dalai Lama and several high-profile, celebrity-packed fundraisers for Tibetan freedom-fighters, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood discovered a way to package Buddhism, and now the time has come with "Seven Years In Tibet," focusing on the relationship between Austrian Heinrich Harrer and the young Dalai Lama. At least that was the original idea. But with the casting of Brad Pitt as the controversial Harrer "Seven Years" has become a movie that has a lot more to do with Pitt's relationship to the audience, as the Dalai Lama, Tibet and the Chinese occupation are just so much exotic background scenery. It's not all Pitt's fault: A project like this could never have gotten backing without a substantial star attached to it, and once you've signed a major talent you're obligated to use him to get your money's worth. And how exactly do you use Pitt? You make sure he has plenty of chances to flash his blinding smile. You throw in extraneous scenes with a lovely Tibetan tailor (Lhakpa Tsamchoe) who orders him to strip so that she can take his measurements. You make sure the lighting crew always surrounds our man with a soft golden glow that makes his incredibly blond hair glisten. What you don't do is ask Pitt to attempt an accent, although he tries mightily hard to pull one off here. Nor should you ask him to pretend to look slovenly: Even in the scenes in which Harrer is supposed to look like he's at death's doorway after struggling through the Himalayas, Pitt's natural beauty betrays him in the same way Michelle Pfeiffer couldn't convince anyone she was a plain-Jane in "Frankie & Johnny." (Interestingly, both "Seven Years" and "Frankie" share the same recurring musical theme, Debussey's "Clair de Lune.") Director Jean-Jacques Annaud's strength is composing gorgeous scenic vistas---he's best known for movies like "The Bear" and "Quest For Fire"---so it's hardly a shock that he first half of "Seven Years" is preoccupied with Harrer's attempt to scale Nanga Parbet, a mountain in the Himalayas that the Nazis would like Harrer to plant their flag at the summit of. When that conquest is interrupted by the start of WWII and Harrer and his partner Peter Aufschnaiter (David Thewlis, another actor with a serious allergy to accents) are thrown into a prison camp, the story proceeds to depict their undramatic escape and their flight through Tibet, another opportunity for Annaud to set up picturesque shots of snow-covered slopes and rolling green valleys. By the start of the film's second hour, the two have sought sanctuary in the Holy City of Lhasa, home of the Dalai Lama (Jumyang Wangchuk). At this point, "Seven Years" finally turns into something more than a lush travelogue: Unfortunately, what it becomes turns out to resemble a non-musical version of "The King & I," with Harrer educating the Dalai Lama in the ways of the West and receiving spiritual rejuvenation in return. Most filmmakers would have seized on this material as a chance to make the principles of Buddhism accessible to the masses, but Annaud and screenwriter Becky Johnston seem more interested in oggling the rituals than in trying to explain their significance. Their view of the Tibetans isn't much more sophisticated than James Hilton's depiction of the inhabitants of Shangri-La in "Lost Horizon": They're mostly serene mystics, aside from a scheming secretary (B.D. Wong) who sells out Tibet to the Chinese invaders. "Do you think that someday people will look at Tibet on the movie screen and wonder what happened to us?" asks the Dalai Lama of Harrer in one of Johnston's more obvious lines. Thanks to the presence of Pitt, it's not inconceivable that millions worldwide will indeed flock to "Seven Years" to learn something about the occupation of Tibet. Unfortunately, this pretty but shallow primer raises a lot more questions than it can hope to answer.
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