GOSPEL AT THE MOVIES

It was not one of those movies that grab a great deal of public attention. There were no exciting special effects; there was no extravagant musical score; and it was playing in an art theater. After the ear-bending cacophony of Mission Impossible II, I felt I wanted no more movies for a while. Then my wife and I went to see The Big Kahuna, starring Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and Peter Facinelli.

The setting for this story could not be simpler: one hotel hospitality suite, where two salesmen and one man from research are attending a convention. They are waiting for the big client: the president of a huge corporation, who will give them the order that will put their small company on the map.

Kevin Spacey is a somewhat cynical, seemingly thick-skinned old fellow, who appears to do his best not to show his tender, vulnerable side. Danny DeVito, his long-time partner, is recently divorced, depressed and discouraged. He wants a change. He wants out. He wants something better. Peter Facinelli, a relatively new actor on the scene, plays the young research associate, unaccustomed to the worldly ways of the sales profession, whose only desire in life is to tell people about Jesus.

The dialogue between them as they wait, the surprising twists the plot takes, and a couple of incredible monologues by Spacey and DeVito raise all kinds of interesting questions. What is real character? What does it mean to be a witness about one's faith? How do you hold on to your humanity in an environment that seems to ask you to be only a function?

These are a few of the intriguing questions the film asks. I found myself being challenged time and again to reconsider how it is that I as a person of faith relate to my world and persons in it. I have seen the film twice now, and I will see it many times again. Sometime Hollywood really gets it right.