OxfordPress.com

Grade: B

Verdict: Gooooooal!

Details: Starring Jamyang Lodro. Directed by Khyentse Norbu. Rated G. 1 hour, 33 minutes.

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Review: If Jamaica can field a bobsled team for the Olympics, why shouldn't some Tibetan monks succumb to soccer fever? That's the premise — based on true events — of "The Cup," a sly charmer set in 1998 in a Tibetan monastery-in-exile nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas.

The story line isn't especially surprising, but everything else about the movie is. To begin with, it's the first movie ever to be made in the tiny Asian country of Bhutan. Secondly, it marks the feature film debut of director Khyentse Norbu, a Buddhist lama believed to be the third incarnation of an important 19th-century holy man. Finally, the cast is made up of actual monks studying at a college of Buddhist philosophy.

What happens onscreen is more ... let's say, familiar. "The Cup" pretty much resembles any given "mischievous schoolboy" movie. Only these schoolboys happen to spend their time chanting, meditating and practicing various forms of self-discipline.

One of them, 14-year-old Orgyen (Jamyang Lodro), is obsessed with soccer. He has taken to leading a small band of fellow fanatics on forbidden nighttime excursions to a nearby village to watch the World Cup semifinals. Unfortunately, they're caught by Geko (Orgyen Tobgyal), the school's disciplinarian.

But Orgyen, who has the beaming energy and scheming determination of Mickey Rooney in his MGM years, decides that it's the sneaking out, not the soccer, that's the problem. He persuades Geko to ask the Abbot (Lama Chonjor) for permission to rent a satellite dish and a television for the championship match between France and Italy. That leads to a typically amusing exchange.

"What is the World Cup?" asks the Abbot.

"Two civilized countries fighting over a ball," replies Geko.

The Abbot, who has the benign presence of everyone's favorite grandfather, considers this for a moment and says, "You must be joking."

One constant joke in "The Cup" is that monks aren't always beatific, spiritually serene saints. The young Buddhists are introduced playing a pickup game of soccer with an empty Coke can as the ball (the best onscreen plug Coke has gotten since "The Gods Must Be Crazy"). During prayer session, they cut up, pass notes, even nod off. And the ironic juxtaposition between a 2,500-year-old tradition and the modern world is underscored by a graffiti-covered wall that lauds Brazil right next to a scrawled "Free Tibet."

Norbu has pulled off a nifty juggling act here. He shows us the exotic mystery of monastic life while, simultaneously, demystifying it through details of the monks' daily existence. He clearly respects these men, but he doesn't get all awe-struck as a Westerner might (say, Martin Scorsese in "Kundun").

The picture is admittedly slow, but its nuances are refreshingly candid and gently humorous. Plus, underneath the sweet-natured comedy is a wistful message about the pain, danger and frustration of exile. Explaining why he's rooting for France in the final, Orgyen says it's the only country to loyally support a free Tibet. The Americans are "scared (expletive) of the Chinese." And the monks' adopted country, India? "They got caught bribing a referee."

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Cox News Service