Today’s quick review: The Love Guru. When Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco), the star of the Toronto Maple Leafs, loses his wife Prudence (Meagan Good) to rival hockey player Jacques Grande (Justin Timberlake), he also loses his ability to play. Desperate for a win, Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba), the owner of the Leafs, calls in Guru Pitka (Mike Myers), a popular self-help guru, to repair Darren’s marriage in time for him to play in the Stanley Cup finals.
The Love Guru is a comedy starring Mike Myers. Born in America but raised in India, Guru Pitka has ascended to become the second most popular guru in the world. Through motivational platitudes and unconventional therapy, Pitka sets out to fix Darren’s marriage and get his head back in the game. The Love Guru aims for the same comedic ideal as Myers’ other work. However, it is hamstrung by disconnected jokes and a weak main character.
The Love Guru’s main problem is that it has no foundation to build on. Guru Pitka is the selling point of the movie, but his character is shallow both personally and comedically. Where Myers’ character of Austin Powers was a wellspring of jokes about the spy genre, England, and the 1960s and still had his own personality, the only thing Pitka brings to the table is a handful of self-help jokes that quickly wear out their welcome.
The consequence is that The Love Guru has no one to tie its jokes together. There are a handful of running gags that are specific to Pitka, but these are some of the weakest in the movie. Everything else is generic Mike Myers humor that happens to be delivered by Pitka, with no real connection to the character or the rest of the movie. Because the jokes are dropped in carelessly, they never build up the momentum the movie badly needs.
The Love Guru fares slightly better with its story. The premise of a specialist patching up a hockey player’s marriage is adequate, and even Pitka’s modest character arc works well enough on paper, a simple story about a vain man learning to put others first. But in practice, the story is let down by weak acting and a lack of effort. None of the cast excel in their roles, and none of the pivotal moments in the story are given their due.
The Love Guru makes many mistakes and has few redeeming qualities. Some viewers will get something out of its crass humor, but the majority will find it either too crude or too ineffectual to enjoy. Most people should steer clear.
For a Mike Myers comedy with similar flaws, try The Cat in the Hat. For one with a much stronger premise, try Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. For a more conventional romantic comedy about a love doctor, try Hitch. For a comedy about an eccentric doctor’s unconventional treatment of a man’s supposed anger issues, try Anger Management.
[3.8 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811138/). I give it a 5.0 for a mediocre premise let down by weak humor.