This play-based indie flick centers around three disheartened lubricant salesmen holed up in a hospitality suite, where they discuss everything from marriage and business to spirituality and God. That's the basic plot in a nutshell. Lesser actors could've ruined the film, but pros like Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito make it shine. Spacey in particular, whose career started on the stage, makes the most of his role and creates one of the wittiest and most memorable characters I've seen in a long time. With the simplest premise, this movie has a lot to say about society and the human condition in general. It's intelligent without trying to be, and that's what makes it great.
Nearly all of the action (mostly dialogue) takes place in a single hospitality suite in Wichita, Kansas during a tool and die industry convention. Insofar as it lives in the world of American business, this movie belongs to the tradition of stage play-turned-film with "Death of a Salesman" and "Glengarry Glen Ross." What "The Big Kahuna" does is bring the secular religion of American Business into conflict with the spiritual religion of Christianity.
This movie succeeds on the strength of its performances, and due to the fact that it treats all of its characters, despite their differing perspectives, fairly, honestly, and with respect (an unfortunately rare thing in Hollywood moviemaking), and finally it does not try to provide a definitive answer to the difficult questions it raises.
