Movie Review: 'Little Buddha' (1994)

Bernardo Bertolucci's lavish epic of a scantily clad Siddhartha (an oddly appropriate Reeves) jumps between 20th-century Seattle and circa 500 b.c. Kathmandu as two Buddhists track down a possibly reincarnated lama who may be in the guise of a Game Boy-playing grade-schooler. There are some sublime visuals of stunning Nepalese architecture and a truly magnificent monastery in Bhutan, but the pacing is just a bit too Zen. You end up praying that the fun-loving monks will whisk the kid off to the Himalayas just so he can escape his gloomy parents (played by Fonda and pop heartthrob Chris Isaak). B-