Erleuchtung garantiert (Enlightenment Guaranteed)

Erleuchtung garantiert (Enlightenment Guaranteed) (2000)

  • 62% of critics liked it
    (13 reviews)

  • 89% of users liked it
    (1,003 ratings)

Noted German filmmaker Doris Dorrie directs this understated comedy about two middle-aged brothers who go to study at a Zen monastery in Japan. The two brothers could not be more different. Uwe (Uwe Ochsenknecht) is a bored husband and kitchenware salesman, while Gustav (Gustav Peter Wohler) is a… More

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Unrated, 1 hr. 48 min.
Directed By
Doris Dörrie
Genres
Drama, Art House & International, Comedy
In Theaters
Jun 1, 1999 Wide
On DVD
Aug 12, 2003
Universal Studios Home Video

Critic Reviews

  • Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

    Dorrie manages to keep the film, and her characters, on track.

  • Ryan Cracknell, Apollo Guide

    With its lack of visual artistry and its overabundance of expository dialogue, I was bored not long after it began.

  • Andrea Chase, Killer Movie Reviews

    Doris Dorrie obviously loves these guys, not in spite of their foibles and failings, but, oddly, because of them.

  • Steve Rhodes, Internet Reviews

    Sometimes movies transcend their descriptions. Who would want to see a German film about a couple of brothers heading for Japan to visit a Zen monastery?

  • Ed Kelleher, Film Journal International

    Its coda--set in that remote monastery--shows signs that enlightenment, if not actually guaranteed, might still be possible for a couple of cranky Europeans.

Read all 6 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Emily A


    This movie is charming on the whole, but even if it doesn't catch your fancy, it's worth sitting through just for the scene where "I Will Survive" is sung in drunk, slurred German. A man, distraught over being dumped by his wife, follows his brother on a pilgrimage… More

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