Socrates: Everyone wants to tell you what to do and what's good for you. They don't want you to find your own answers, they want you to believe theirs.
Dan Millman: Let me guess, and you want me to believe yours.
Socrates: No, I want you to stop gathering information from the outside and start gathering it from the inside.

Seeing a movie is a transcendent experience. The lines, the scenes, the props, even the camera angles connect with you as a viewer and they touch your heart, bringing some deeper message into focus and filling you with emotion. It happens to me a lot, and I usually feel the need to share that with other people. But the strange thing is, when I do that, it's met with indifference or with open hostility for the movie at least as often as it's met with any kind of appreciation for my revelation, and I have to keep reminding myself that the experience and the emotion aren't about anyone else, they're about me and my experience with the film and that I have to be satisfied with that and not try to get a reaction out of anyone else by sharing my reaction. I have to do it for the joy of writing, so that's what I'm going to do (even when every other critic in the world disagrees with me, which is often the case). In the end, whatever enjoyment and enlightenment you get from watching a film is between you and the film, and no amount of words from any reviewer is going to change that. It's part of the mystery and magic of movies that we all know and love.

I say all this because I knew coming into this movie that I was going to love it and that most other critics have hated it. I've been excited to see this movie since I heard it was being made and I read everything on it that I could get my hands on, particularly the reviews, most of which told me in no uncertain terms to avoid this movie. Indeed, almost all of the reviews have been negative, calling the film overly preachy and treating it with disdain because it's full of new-age philosophy. And in some ways, they're right. Nick Nolte (playing a character known as "Socrates" no less) is an old man with a lot of wisdom trying to impart that wisdom onto a young college athlete who thinks he already knows everything (or close to it). It's just THAT kind of movie, like hundreds of other movies that have come before it, and the fact that it's based on a true story notwithstanding, it's set in a semi-fantastical fictional world where a young man is in desperate need of some life lessons, so the film is going to be preachy because the preachiness is a necessity of the plot. And that's not a bad thing, because in this case Dan Millman (the young athlete played by relative newcomer Scott Mechlowicz) is a cocky, self-assured kid who takes his talents and indeed much of his life for granted.

This interest turns into an obsession with the old man when events in Dan's life take a drastic turn and he finds himself in desperate need of something to keep him going. Along the way we are treated to some superb scenes of gymnastic prowess which will be of interest to any fans of the sport. As Dan works toward some greater understanding of his life he comes to want to understand and to learn just as much as he wants to physically achieve, and this helps him learn WHY he is so desperate to achieve athletic greatness. Mechlowicz is a name to watch, because he plays his part beautifully, at turns cocky and arrogant and vulnerable and heartbroken, and he truly inhabits the character he's playing. Nolte is capable as the wise old man with a seemingly endless store of knowledge, but since the nature of his part is a semi-mythical wise old sage his character never really develops. We never learn who Socrates really is (we never even learn his real name). Amy Smart is alluring as always in the part of Joy, but she is sadly underused so we never learn much about her character except that she is elusive and she has a kind heart. Some more development there would have served the film well.

In the end, this is exactly what you would expect it to be: a movie about a young man who is passionate about what he loves and who must find the strength to go on when it seems that he has been defeated. The message of hope has been overused to the point where it may seem clichéd and maudlin and I suspect that's what most of the backlash against the film is about, but the ability of the actors to inhabit their roles and breathe life into their characters saves the movie from being sentimental drivel. I believed that Dan was really suffering, thus I cared about his journey as he searched for a revelation, and I was happy when he found his answers. I strive every day to give my life meaning by doing what I love, so I can relate to Dan's journey even as I'm writing this review, because I'm glad to be doing what I love, and that part of me will always resonate with characters when they get to do what they love, too. Like I said before, it's part of the magic of movies, and there's a lot of magic in this particular movie, and I'm glad I got to see it.

As I said before, Socrates isn't very well developed. I get it, he's cool and mysterious and that's supposed to be deep and profound and the teacher should be known by his lessons not by his name, I get it, it was still a cop-out. Some more development wouldn't have hurt, and his sudden disappearance from the end of the film is cheesy, not profound. The screenwriters would do well to learn the difference, since it detracts from the power of a film that might otherwise be flawless.

The film doesn't really break any new ground, but it treads its well-worn ground with style and I was moved. If you think you will be moved, too, then know that it comes highly recommended, at least by this reviewer.

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