'Celestine Prophecy' far from heavenly

Note to filmmakers: Sending a message? Next time, try e-mail

Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 21, 2006 at midnight

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Advertisements for The Celestine Prophecy movie are built around the line, "The book that changed our lives is now a movie!"

How you react to the big-screen version of James Redfield's best-seller - or whether you bother to see it at all - probably depends on whether you include yourself in the group to whom the advertisement speaks.

Redfield's novel, with its nine insights and faux adventure, took readers into the Peruvian rain forest as part of a search for a long-lost manuscript.

But it did much more: It provided life lessons in the form of an eclectic assembly of quasi-religious bromides that told readers that many of their thoughts and actions were guided.

A word of caution: Devotees of the 1993 novel probably should stop reading. You already know where I stand, and you're only going to upset yourself.

Who knows? You may very well delight in seeing Celestine brought to the big screen even if I looked at the whole business as a self-help book with a plot.

Judged by the normal standards, the Celestine movie is far from heavenly. The characters constantly remind one another that there are no coincidences, the actors all seem to have the kind of good looks one associates with TV soap operas, and there's an uninspired special effect - sort of a neon glow - that shows how energy is transferred between characters.

All of this involves a prophecy that could guide humanity toward the next evolutionary step, providing enough members of the species fully digest the nine insights, which conveniently are displayed in title cards at the end of the movie.

Of course, when a prophecy arises, someone (a soldier and, initially, a Catholic bishop) are duty bound to suppress it. Temporal power has little use for prophecy, perhaps preferring polls.

The movie, directed by Armand Mastroianni, includes flashbacks to the time when the prophecy was hidden. And there are lines that sound as if they've been run through a New Age Cuisinart. ("There's more to the world than you think, John. A beauty. An energy.")

The story: John (Matthew Settle) is a teacher who's laid off at the beginning of the film. A friend suggests he travel to Peru to look into a community that's doing important work that definitely will change his life.

It takes John a while to adapt to his new environs and to a new "philosophy." When he meets a pretty woman (Sarah Wayne Callies) at an idyllic estate in the Peruvian forest, he's told: "Your energy made her feel as if you want to control her. You may not be conscious of it, but you were taking her energy."

John has to "open up" to the source of energy inside himself, and he's eventually able to do a better job relating to the woman who caught his eye.

A no-name cast is bolstered by the presence of at least two recognizable faces. Hector Elizondo plays Cardinal Sebastian and Jurgen Prochnow portrays Jensen. Both are bad guys, although one is less bad than the other.

As you probably can tell, the movie is less about developing characters than allowing them to dispense aphorisms of belief: "Things are not always as they seem." "Always find the deeper meaning, the silver lining that keeps you in the flow."

The film does have some decent production values, but the story fails to generate much tension, perhaps because the external forces that oppose the protagonist are drawn without subtlety.

No one every really questions whether all of this is a bunch of hooey. The whole thing unfolds pretty much according to plan. And even with some rebels thrown into the mix, the excitement level remains pretty low.

But here's the real rub: It's an old story. If you want to send a message, send a telegram. These days, it probably would be an e-mail, but the idea still applies.

When a movie delivers its message as plainly as this one, it's either an after-school special or a piece of propaganda.

I guess you can tell where I stand on the issue.

One last thing: If you're a believer, enjoy, and I'll make a deal with you: Don't try to control my energy, and I won't try to control yours.

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