Boring and uninteresting

Rating: Null/10 (28 August 2012)

Usually these kinds of "realize your own potential, seize the day" films hold my attention, I find them interesting. The thing is, though, that usually these kinds of films try to spice up the message with a story that's perhaps a bit outlandish, but at the same time captivating. Dead Poets Society springs to mind. Unfortunately the story of this film is rather bland. It's your average sports story where the underdog overcomes physical impossibilities in order to prove to himself that he can do it. You've seen one of them, you've seen them all.
To the movie's credit, the underdog story is not the main point of the film, though. Rather it's the relationship between this old mystical self-made guru (Nick Nolte) and his young student (Scott Mechlowicz) that needs to understand the realities of life before he can hope to overcome his obstacles. Unfortunately that relationship is where the movie fails to deliver, so to speak. Neither of the actors is bad, but neither do they have any real chemistry between themselves. The conversations they have are interesting to a point, but after the third time they'd gone over basically the same point and argument, I just couldn't care anymore. This is based on true events to a certain extent, so perhaps the real life underdog needed to hear these same arguments over and over, but I as a viewer could have used a bit of variety.
I also couldn't understand some of these stunts that the guru pulled off in order to impress his student-to-be. The point that the movie was trying to make, if I understood correctly, was that if you focus on the present, you can overcome your limits, yada-yada. But when some of those stunts are frankly physically impossible, the viewer is left wondering whether or not the film is trying to step into the real of magical realism. I know I was so when I realized towards the middle of the film that these stunts were to be taken seriously, I actually laughed, because no way, no way under the moon and sun is that possible like that.
All that being said, I don't think that this is a bad film. The acting is alright, the various gymnastic scenes are shot with great style and while the story felt a bit stale to me, I know that it's more because I like my self-improvement stories with a bit more flair than this. Would I recommend this to anyone? Probably not, but if these kinds of films are your thing, you should like it just fine.