The Big Kahuna

Larry (Kevin Spacey) and Phil (Danny DeVito) are old friends and seen-it-all salesmen camped out in a dingy Wichita hotel room. The newbie among their ranks, Bob (Peter Facinelli), is an earnest Christian with a direct line not only to Jesus but also, it seems, to ‘the big kahuna’ – a wealthy buyer for their brand of industrial lubricant. Can this devout and principled young man go in for the kill, or do his higher beliefs override the religion of salesmanship? John Swanbeck’s chamber piece (which Roger Rueff adapted from his own play, ‘Hospitality Suite’) too blatantly aspires to the prolix cynicism, rattled machismo and quick-change power dynamics of ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ and ‘In the Company of Men’. Produced by Spacey, the film premiered at Sundance when Bill Clinton was still in office, and its tardy release date only intensifies a distinct impression of secondhand, third-string Mamet left to moulder in a motel bureau.