Spirit Is Willing . . .

A series of high-concept notions in search of a film, “Holy Man” falls apart right in front of our eyes. It’s not an inspiring sight.

This comic examination of America’s parallel manias for shopping and gurus, starring Eddie Murphy, is an appealing notion, and “Holy Man” manages some amusing moments. But the satire never takes hold, the dramatic and romantic aspects are indifferently executed, and the whole thing has the authenticity of one of those celebrated zirconium diamonds.

The Good Buy Shopping Network, GBSN for short, has gone beyond selling those ersatz gems, but not by much. Easily the funniest parts of Tom Schulman’s script are the network’s mock infomercials for products like Hood Buddy, which cooks meals while your car drives; a glue gun useful for attaching children to the ceiling; and the James Brown Soul Survivors System, which in case of emergency has the hardest working man in show business scream out, “Help me, help me, good God!”

In nominal charge of GBSN is hard-charging Robert “Ricky” Hayman (Jeff Goldblum), a confident-seeming salesman whose daily mantra is “Good, better, best: Never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best.” Ricky, however, is really running scared. He’s in danger of losing both his convertible and his glamorous Miami Beach apartment to the bank, and an unknown quantity named McBainbridge (Robert Loggia) has just bought GBSN.

McBainbridge turns out to be a cranky sort who is incensed that sales at the network have been flat for 27 months. He tells Ricky he has two weeks to turn things around and assigns his driven No. 2, media analyst Kate Newell (Kelly Preston), to help figure out an identity for GBSN.

It’s at this point, when a flat tire on the highway strands these two, that G (Murphy) appears, wearing white pants and a flowing shirt and blithely walking across several lanes of traffic to ask, “Are you in trouble and in need of my help?”

Hayman, who G amusingly calls Robert Ricky, is suspicious of this wandering savant who stops periodically to smell the grass and whose response when hooligans hit him with a plastic cup full of soda is a heartfelt and cheerful, “Thanks for not using a can.” But Kate takes a liking to G, and since Ricky is smitten with her, G is soon living in Ricky’s penthouse and mixing with celebrities like designer Nino Cerruti at fancy parties.

G has no last name (“A consonant is here to see you” is how they refer to him when he visits the station), no visible past and a sorrowful attitude toward a society where a “Baywatch” lifeguard is more of a role model than the Dalai Lama. So of course Ricky is going to hit on the idea of using G as a pitchman to sell the flotsam and jetsam of the universe to gullible consumers, and of course G is going to agree.

Murphy was originally thought of for the role of the fast-talking Ricky, and it’s to his credit that he wanted to go past the obvious and play G. The guru is someone you can’t quite figure out, a “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” individual who is simultaneously warm and opaque, like a rock left outside in the sun, and Murphy has the strength of personality and ability to turn in a properly comic and enigmatic performance.

But though Murphy makes an acceptable wise child, someone whose seeming innocence makes people think there’s something deep going on, one problem with “Holy Man” is that that kind of character has been done earlier, and better, in numerous films, including “Being There,” “Michael” and even “Forrest Gump.”

Also, though the setup here is passable, what happens once G gets on TV is so obvious and banal you could predict it in your sleep. G’s philosophy turns out to be so mild (“You never feel more whole than when you love another person”), it’s almost not there, and the crisis Ricky and Kate have about whether they’re going to, horror of horrors, sell their souls is close to embarrassing.

Not helping the story problems is Stephen Herek, a director whose gift for blanding things out has been rewarded with tedious box-office successes like the live-action “101 Dalmatians,” the “Three Musketeers” remake and “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” With iffier material than usual here, that kind of touch is fatal, and a film that thinks it’s saying a whole lot more than it actually is sinks quietly under the waves.

* MPAA rating: PG for some language. Times guidelines: mild language.

‘Holy Man’

Eddie Murphy: G

Jeff Goldblum: Ricky

Kelly Preston: Kate

Robert Loggia: McBainbridge

Jon Cryer: Barry

A Roger Birnbaum production in association with Caravan Pictures, released by Touchstone Pictures. Director Stephen Herek. Producers Roger Birnbaum, Stephen Herek. Executive producers Jeff Cherenov, Jonathan Glickman. Screenplay by Tom Schulman. Cinematographer Adrian Biddle. Editor Trudy Ship. Costumes Aggie Guerard Rodgers. Music Alan Silvestri. Production design Andrew McAlpine. Art director James Tocci. Set decorator Chris Spellman. Running time: 1 hour, 53 minutes.

* Playing in general release throughout Southern California.