Saturday, July 5, 2008

Becoming a better person by being a couch potato Part 1

Part one in my new weekly series of putting the spotlight on films and shows that will entertain while making you *gasp* think! First up:

Mindwalk
- A personal favorite of mine. I've watched this film several times and come away after each viewing with new thoughts and ideas. However, make no mistake. This is not a film for everyone. To call it “dialogue heavy” would be like calling the Grand Canyon a “big hole”. The statement would be accurate but would not convey the reality properly.
The film has no plot to speak of. (I know. I'm really selling it here, huh?) It's about two friends , one a poet and the other a failed presidential candidate, who get together while in Mont Saint-Michel, France. While walking around the island they come across a Norwegian scientist and the three of them have a conversation. That's pretty much it. But, oh, what a conversation! It's intelligent and thought provoking without being preachy and artificial. Like a real conversation, the topics of conversation jump around a bit. They range from politics to physics and then to poetry. Looking for mindless entertainment? Don't look here.

The major knock on this film is that nothing happens and that's true. At no point in the film does one of the characters suddenly stave off the invading alien horde that is about to conqueror France. Nor does the one friend profess his unrequited love to the other friend as he lays dying in a pool of blood after having been gunned down by the mafia. Neither does the Norwegian scientist turn out to be bent on world domination and only the two crafty Americans, who turned out to be not only a poet and a politician but ex Secret Service operatives as well, stop her. Nope. This is just two hours of people having a conversation that may or may not change the way they think about things. With luck, it will and with luck, it will do the same for you. I highly recommend tracking this film down.

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