Given the choice between the simple life and the fast-paced world of a big city or foreign land, movies tend to favor the former roughly 100 percent of the time. No matter the cultural benefits offered by an urban setting, or the exciting adventures that come with moving to a new place, the comforts of home—which the hero has invariably taken for granted—ultimately carry the day. Of course, if home is an idyllic village nestled in the Himalayas, perhaps it's worth taking another look around. Proving again that not even the most remote locale is isolated from Hollywood formula, director Khyentse Norbu, who debuted with 1999's cutesy Buddhist soccer comedy The Cup, returns with Travellers & Magicians, an equally unsurprising tribute to the sweetness of rural dwellers. Only the arresting scenery serves to remind audiences that they haven't visited this same place a thousand times before.
With his conspicuous white tennis shoes, "I Heart New York" T-shirt, and girl-pop cassettes, Bhutanese villager Tshewang Dendup seems a fanny-pack away from being an American tourist. Eager to leave his modest home for a "dreamland" in the States, Dendup must reach the capital city of Thimphu in two days to pick up his visa, but after missing the bus, he's forced to hitchhike the rest of the way. Along the way, he reluctantly acquires a few traveling companions, including a beatific Buddhist monk (Sonam Kinga), an elderly rice-paper maker, and his pretty teenage daughter (Sonam Lahmo), who happens to hail from Dendup's village. In a not-so-subtle attempt to talk Dendup out of going West, the monk tells him the story of a dreamer and would-be magician (Lhakpa Dorji) who gets lost in the woods and seeks refuge with a repressive old man and his sexy young wife (Deki Yangzom). As if in a mini-The Postman Always Rings Twice, the youngsters in Dorji's story fall in love and scheme against the abusive coot, who proves especially vulnerable to liquor.
Other than centering on restless dreamers who long for greener pastures, the two stories in Travellers & Magicians never coalesce in the way Norbu might have intended. That is, unless his intention was to show these wayward men that there are just as many babes in Bhutan as there are in Manhattan. As the film goes along, Norbu spends so much time on the monk's story that Dendup's inevitable change of heart feels abrupt and unearned, too easy for a guy who had so roundly rejected his station in life a mere day or two earlier. In that sense, the monk's quick-fix solution is about as American as it gets.