A Heavy Dose of Zen Philosophy

Rating: 6/10 (4 October 2018)

Dan Millman (Scott Mechlowicz) is a college gymnast who has a vivid nightmare about shattering his leg upon dismounting from the rings. And while he is lying on the ground in pain he notices a man who is wearing two different colored shoes picking up the pieces of his leg. He then immediately awakens and in an attempt to forget about it decides to go to a nearby gas station for a snack-and it's then that he meets a man wearing two different colored shoes. To make matters even more surreal, when he leaves he sees the attendant sitting down but when he turns back around he notices that the man is now standing on top of the roof of the gas station. As one might expect this puzzles him quite a bit, but even more than that, as he returns to the service station the next day to try to solve this puzzle the man he now calls "Socrates" (Nick Nolte) is so astute that it causes him to reanalyze his entire belief system in the process as well. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an entertaining film which incorporates a heavy dose of Zen philosophy throughout. Be that as it may, while I haven't read the book from which it was based, I must admit that I found a couple of the scenes a bit over-the-top and totally unnecessary to the overall story. Having said that, however, I still enjoyed it for the most part and have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.