Review of Enlighten Up! (2008) by Jennifer S — 10 Apr 2010

A reasonably satisfying little documentary that features a surprisingly profound ending where there very well could have been an empty climax.

The thing people have to get about this movie is that yes, the main character Norman Allen is quite a bit of a skeptic. Yes, he's probably a yuppie who was thinking "this is bullshit" through about eighty percent of all of the yogic practices that he tried to perform or understand. That's the way he was as a real person, and I know that it got kind of annoying when he kept repeating to himself like a mantra that he didn't believe in anything besides the grand and mighty Concrete and Empirically Proven things of the world... but at least he wasn't pretending to be all in awe of something he really didn't care enough about to believe in. And Kate Churchill, while forcing this guy to explore his own inner world, seems to have some doubts of her own. She even admits that she is the camera person because she didn't have the guts to make his journey herself, so she's just going along and watching him try out all these funky headstand poses and listening to these swami-types who have a lot to say on the matter.

And we have to admit, a lot of these hardcore gurus seem a little nutty. If you're not in on that crowd, they seem so totally dedicated and unreachable. Part of me feels as if this is something you either get or you don't, and Norman will have to figure this out the hard way. He smiles and nods to all these people, and what they say actually does make a lot of sense, but the real understanding just isn't there. The shock comes when, at the end of the movie, he meets a guru who finally makes him stop and think.

This guy, with the extra holy beard of a sage and the sense of humor to go with it, simply said: figure out what makes YOU happy. It might not even be yoga! Just do whatever it is, and do it well, and you're set for life.

A lot of people, including me, have had to re-learn this bit of information over and over. Norman probably did too. The advice almost overwhelms him, and he doesn't really speak that evening while traveling across the river. I'm willing to bet that he was trying to tell himself to enjoy yoga, or at least be awed or flabbergasted by it, and it just wasn't working - and here this guru is, who finally lets him know that that's completely okay. It was a powerful moment, a climax that I did not really expect to come from a documentary that could very well have ended with his badly hidden disappointment... or some flimsy pretend revelation.

Hearing back (is it a year?) after the documentary has been completed, we find out that Norman has taken up work involving rock climbing. So that's what it was that he really liked to do! I think all along he was just seeking permission to go ahead with it. It's kind of obvious to me that Churchill is disappointed by the fact that his life was not transformed by the divine art of yoga the way she wanted him to be, but I'm divinely happy for Norman. Having found what it is he wants to do, I'd say he's pretty lucky as it is. She, however, needs to do some more soul searching it seems... and that's why I hesitate to say that this movie is one hundred percent satisfying. We see Norman open up to making the choice between what he wants and what he thinks he should want, but Kate's insistence that yoga 'keeps me whole' sounds a bit forced. Or defensive. I'm not sure. It is odd that the subject of the documentary is not what I question here but rather the documentarian.

I loved the scenes of India and the quest for personal truth. I have to admit I oftentimes that I related to Norman and his nagging doubts. I think a lot of viewers have. Wherever you are on the scale of enlightenment, this is definitely worth a watch.