solid adaptation

Rating: 9/10 (15 March 2007)

A movie can't be savored, at least not on first viewing, and only a few movies will be seen more than once. The best reveal new texture the second and third times around. Beyond that, we re-watch just to appreciate the craftsmanship, to see the scene we know and love. To make movies that entertain and educate or inspire is a tall order. Plenty don't even do the first for an educated palette.
Turning a book about inner transformation into a movie is a daunting challenge. What to put in, what to leave out, how to compress what could only adequately be told by a ten-hour long film into one-fifth that space, who to cast and how to make the thing engaging to an audience not already exposed to the book all complicate the equation.
Then there's the question of dialog  beyond a certain point, you need some action, but movies of this kind are going to be highly dependent on one person saying significant things to another. What films pull off extended dialog well? (Before Sunrise and Before Sunset were probably unique in how dialog-intensive they were, successful at it, and that was around romance, not spiritual teaching.) These are some of the hurdles that faced Victor Salva in turning Dan Millman's Way of the Peaceful Warrior into a major-studio, feature-length film. By and large, he succeeded, making a watchable picture that those who have read the book should enjoy and those who haven't will still find accessible, if they stretch a bit and pay attention. The film is competently shot with attractive, well-framed cinematography, not over-reliant on special effects, mostly well-cast and well acted. Its few flaws aren't enough to throw off the narrative.
Scott Mechlowicz plays Dan, a gymnast at Berkeley. His sensitive, emotional acting in this could push his career into high gear  whoever thought the lead of Eurotrip would be a good choice probably also picked Conan O'Brien out of the crowd for a certain talk show ten years ago. The romantic interest (of a sort, this isn't taken very far), Joy, is played by Amy Smart, one of a hundred interchangeable actresses when she was in Rat Race. In Peaceful Warrior she simultaneously projects mystery and openness  not an easy combination  without apparent effort. Having read the book years ago, I was interested to learn who would be cast as Dan's mentor, Socrates, and thought Nick Nolte an inspired choice. But his performance is likely to divide viewer's opinions. How do you convey calm self-assurance, ancient wisdom in an unlikely persona, mysticism and grounding? Nolte chose a even-keeled, unflappable and perhaps even somewhat world-weary expression to portray this old sage that will strike some as spot-on but others as two-dimensional and flat. I would have preferred a more colorful, animated Socrates, but playing the role as a cipher does heighten the other characters' texture, and perhaps that was the intention.
The real question in any movie of this kind is how well the message gets though. Can you please the true believers, engage those new to the message and at least leave the unsympathetic with a few things to think about? I think Peaceful Warrior succeeds at all three. The choices Salva makes are generally the right ones. He mostly kept the essential, discarded the peripheral, steered relatively clear of clichés and made a film that inspires without badgering and educates without preaching. It's rich without being cluttered  there's a lot in it but it gives its vignettes space to breathe. Could it be better still? Sure, but not in under three hours.
There are a few other minor miscues. The events that inspired the book happened in the late 1960s; the movie is set in the present-day, but the service station where Socrates works is filled with old clunkers. At the end of the picture, when the team van pulls out of the station, you can practically see the seam between the two worlds. A smallish problem, but it strikes a slightly sour note.
Finally, an important caveat. Peaceful Warrior is a good movie to see alone, with a close friend, parent, child or as a conversation starter on a date. But don't let anyone you propose seeing it with watch the trailer, and avoid it yourself if you can. It makes the film look as formulaic as an algebra class, and you think you've seen the whole thing by watching the preview (including the inevitable ending). A word, then, about the ending. It isn't what you expect and it isn't the unexpected. There were a dozen ways to screw that up and I couldn't think of the one way to get it right. Salva's was pitch-perfect.
Somehow a good explanation of the title never made it into the body of the film. (Ironically, it's heard in the trailer.) This isn't it either, but Voltaire said "to hold a pen is to be at war." The authors of this book and screenplay well earned their warrior status by the time they scribbled "curtain" at the end of this adroit blend of entertainment and inspiration.