Mike Myers is the Guru Pitka, who studied alongside Deepak Chopra, but has always been the second most popular guru, and desperately wants to be number one. Part of that, of course, means getting onto The Oprah Show, something that Deepak Chopra has done several times, but the Guru Pitka has never managed to do. When the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team's MVP player, Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) breaks up with his wife, Prudence Roanoke (Meagan Good) and his game takes a sour turn, Guru Pitka gets his chance; if he can get the two back together and "fix" Darren's game so that the Maple Leafs can win the Stanley Cup, not only will he receive a large sum of money in payment, but he will also get his spot on Oprah's show.
...and comedy ensues. The typical Mike Myers sort, that we've come to expect, with a lot of double entendres, sexual references and nasty names. Verne Troyer plays the coach of the Maple Leafs, coach Punch Cherkov, who ends up being at odds with the Guru Pitka, leading to a lot of comically awkward situations and bickering between the Guru Pitka and Punch Cherkov.
Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba) is one of Guru Pitka's biggest fans and is the owner of the Maple Leafs. She is the one who hires Guru Pitka to get their star player back in shape, but Guru Pitka falls for her, which leads to her becoming his love interest and introduces the age old problem of girl-likes-boy, boy-likes-girl-but-still-wears-a-chastity-belt, which tends to send mixed signals.
Meanwhile, Guru Pitka's definitely got his hands full, because he has to convince Prudence to go back to her husband, but she has left him to be with his rival athlete, Jacques "Le Coq" Grande (Justin Timberlake), who either gets his nickname because he bears a rooster as his moniker or because his last name is not the only thing that is "grande." Le Coq tries to counter Guru Pitka's every move to reunite the Roanoke's.
The Love Guru makes fun of Gurus, the self-help industry, hockey, the Indian movie industry (Bollywood) and the master/apprentice system. My favorite scenes include the meeting that took place in Punch Cherkov's office, which was scaled to fit Verne Troyer, such that everyone else was too tall to fit, the scene where Guru Pitka was receiving his training from his master and they spoofed the training from Kill Bill and the parts where Guru Pitka starts to daydream and we zoom into his mind, where he's starring in a Bollywood dance number. Too funny. One funny running gag is that Guru Pitka greets people with a very Indian sounding greeting, "Mariska Hargitay," which is, of course, the name of an actress. This joke hits its highest point when he actually greets Mariska Hargitay.
One of the truly great aspects of The Love Guru is the color commentary banter between Trent (Jim Gaffigan) and Jay (Stephen Colbert). This duo of comedic genius provides a great deal of additional comic relief, as Trent tries to work with Jay, but Jay goes off topic, behaves erratically and draws suggestive drawings on the play board. It seems that Jay is off the bandwagon and is doing his commentary while high on peyote. I'm a big Gaffigan fan and loved his part in The Love Guru, as well as the extra banter to be found in the Back in the Booth with Trent and Jay special feature.
If you don't like Mike Myer's previous films, this is not likely to be the film to change your mind. If, however, you do appreciate the particular brand of comedy that sprouts from the mind of Mike Myers, then The Love Guru is a must-see.
