Be Dazzled !

Here, comes another movie review from a not so ardent movie watcher. And yea, as always the review isn’t just about the story line, acting, music… It’s more about obscure lessons present in the movie. Going by the popularity of the movie, I guess most of you must have seen it for 2 reasons 1) It’s Brendan Fraser movie 2) You simply couldn’t have missed it. Well, that’s what I was told by my friend while conversing with him when we stumbled on to the movies subject. He had a long list of movies and I was wondering which one to see. My friend would tell me the summary of each movie, and I would decide if I want to see it or not. What hooked me to this movie was the fact that the actor plays seven roles in the movie. Now, any movie that has the actor doing dual roles is always interesting. For seven, I needn’t think twice… So that’s a preface on how I came across the movie and got beDaZZled.



Just a brief outline of the movie. The movie is about an innocent, over eager man,Elliot (played by Brendan fraser) who leads a mundane life. He doesn’t have any friends and his coworkers avoid him. Still just to be a part of a group, he allows himself to be taken for granted by his friends. He likes his colleague, Allison but is shy to ask her out. In a bar, due to his friend’s insistence, he approaches her to have a conversation with her. But she excuses herself while he is still talking to her looking elsewhere. He comments that he will give anything to have Allison with him. At this point of time, the Satan (played by Elizabeth Hurley) enters the scene and offers Elliot a deal – 7 wishes to make anything come true, in exchange for his soul. Elliot doesnt believe her. The satan asks him to make a trial wish. He wishes for a big Mac and a large coke. The Satan takes him to a Mac Shop and buys him that and makes him pay for it too. Cynically, Elliot dismisses her, for which she says ‘There aren’t any free lunches’. Somehow, the Devil convinces Elliot to sign the contract.



Elliot wishes to be a powerful, rich person and married to Allison. He ends up being a Columbian drug lord, whom Allison doesn’t like at all. The devil then says he hadn’t wished for Allison to love him. Elliot then wishes to be a sensitive, emotional man who, Allison likes. He turns to be extremely sensitive guy who starts crying every-time he admires nature. Allison leaves him for another guy who is strong and callous.



Elliot’s third wish is to be a famous, strong, tall person and he becomes a famous basketball star. Yet, he ends up having low IQ. Elliot then wishes to be a famous, intelligent, well built person and he becomes a highly famed writer. But then he turns out to be a gay. To balance that, he wishes to be a famous, intelligent, powerful person – the President of America. The devil makes him Abraham Lincoln at the Ford’s theatre just before his assassination.


The devil reminds him that he has only 1 wish (taking into account the Mac and Coke trial wish) left. Elliot accuses the devil of cheating him but he gets imprisoned when he tells a Church father about the deal with Satan. The devil dressed as police officer locks him in cell and tells him he doesn’t have any choice now. His cell inmate tells him that the soul of a man truly belongs to God and that the devil is just confusing him, yet in the end he will realise who he truly is, and what his purpose is. Elliot decides not to ask any more wish but the devil threatens him to teleport him to hell, and pushes him into the hell’s chasm. While falling he wishes for Allison to be happy. Surprisingly, he finds himself in the staircase of the courthouse, and the devil explains that a selfless wish voids the contract. Elliot then a refined, wise person approaches Allison and conveys his love for her. She replies that she is seeing someone. He goes ahead with his life, in a cheerful manner. When he reaches home, he meets his new neighbor Nicole, who looks and personality matches Allison’s. They begin a relationship and end up being a lovely couple.

Well, now coming to “The learning’s from the movie”. I would like to share 3 main lessons in this movie. The first one is about Self-awareness. Most of us, look at other’s life like film stars, sport person and yearn their life style and feel jealous of them. Yet what we neglect most of the time is that our life is unique in some way. Every person’s life has his/her own challenges which other people aren’t aware off. Stardom or wealth or fame, though it looks attractive at first glance, there is more to it that what appears in the surface. As someone said “The grass always looks greener on the other side”. In the movie, even though Elliot has the power to make anything come true, there is a challenge, obstacle which each character faces which isn’t oblivious to the outside world. Finally, only when Elliot’s outlook towards his life changes, he begins to live a happy life. So, for anyone who is fantasizing about living someone else’s life, it’s time to take a reality check and realize your own uniqueness.

The second learning is for people who are looking for their soul mates. In the movie, Elliot longs for Allison and considers her to be his perfect soulmate. He even gathers the courage at the end of the movie to approach Allison and express his feelings for her. Yet,she rejects his proposal. But when he goes ahead in his life with an optimistic attitude, he meets Nicole who is the perfect partner for him. Similarly, many of us assume we know who the right person is for us. And going behind the person and getting cheated makes us think that everything is lost for us. Yet, the important thing to remember in life is that no matter what we think, there is someone who is outside there for you, the Perfect one. :)

The final lesson which I want to share is the kind of choices we make in life. It always come down to the choices we make in our life. The devil finally tells Elliot that the whole thing about Hell and heaven, is all nothing. Hell and Heaven is always present around us. It’s our choice whether we want to choose Hell or heaven. One can either keep cribbing about the situation, relationships, health, wealth etc. and he would make a choice to live a Hell’s life. Alternatively, one can also decide to have an optimistic outlook towards life and look at the happenings as experiences to empower oneself. By doing so, we ensure that we live in heaven while still on earth. Hence, its always ALWAYS the choice we make in our life that determines how we end up in life.

That’s it for now. I hope the post was useful to some of you in some way. And yeah, don’t miss out the movie. Brendan Fraser acting is awesome and simply can’t be missed ! Happy learning and Happy watching. :)