What the #$*! do we know

I saw this last night with me wife. If you’ve not seen it, it’s an unusual blend of science, mysticism, and fiction. Not terribly great acting, not convincing as a documentary, but nonetheless fascinating because it’s a hodge-podge of interesting bits that seem to fit together well.

They show various talking heads discussing weighty stuff like quantum physics and “paradigms of thinking.” The claim is that you can be in more control of your reality than you suspect–sort of the power of positive thinking on steroids. Mixed in with the documentary style talking heads is a fictional account of a woman who has a problem with her love life and is hooked on some sort of prescription medicine. Her story is used to illustrate the talking points of the experts. In the end she reaches some sort of enlightenment, which is my biggest gripe about the movie. It makes it all seem sort of schmaltzy.

The talking head stuff seemed much more interesting, but it was pretty dense. I got a little lost toward the middle of the movie. My wife and I had a great discussion after the movie was over, which was probably the best part of seeing the movie for me.