I love this movie so much

A Masterpiece!

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Warning: If your soul is not well-prepared for this journey, don't watch it. There's a lot of tissues involved Yes, I started crying right after the first 5 minutes. Everything. Just so beautiful. So mesmerizing. The light. The sound. The people. My 2 most favorite humans in the world: Thich Nhat Hanh and Benedict Cumberbatch? Well I'm in. Ok, I think I've run out of tissues.

This is being touted sometimes as a documentary, which it absolutely is not. Its mainly just a series of fragmentary and unexplained glimpses of life in Plum Village (located in rural SW France), involving both monastic residents and temporary visitors, plus some scenes of monks and nuns traveling abroad. There isn't much dialog, and virtually no "teaching".I kind of enjoyed it; but this was possibly ONLY because I've experienced silent Buddhist meditation retreats and thus have some idea of what's going on, and I already know who Thich Nhat Hanh is and what Plum Village is about. Viewers without any basic foreknowledge are going to be totally lost from the get-go.Thich Nhat Hanh is of course legendary, and in the past I have enjoyed listening to recordings of a few of his Dharma talks which I find rewarding. This presentation does not provide anything remotely like that.I think that the main thing I came away with was a reconfirmation that I'm not a likely candidate for strict monkhood!

Zen Buddhism is a really interesting way to look at the world, and Thich Nhat Hanh is arguably one of its great teachers. But neither comes through in this well meant but pointless film.The film fails to tell you much of anything. You don't learn who Thich Nhat Hanh is, what he's doing, where he's doing it (beyond somewhere in France), or why he's doing it. There's no history, no context. It's mostly just following a guy around, and I mean that literally, there are minutes on screen of the back of a guy's head as he walks about.You won't learn much of anything about Zen Buddhism. The five core precepts aren't mentioned, nor the 14 mindfulness teachings. You'll have to look them up because IMDb won't let me post a link here. You'd think that any film about Thich Nhat Hanh would at least mention what he's known for. If you think that, this film will disappoint you.And I have to say the camera work played against what little message there was. For example, there were way, way, way too many extreme closeups, which emphasizes the individual and downplays the connections between all things that Thich Nhat Hanh teaches.Thich Nhat Hanh and the Zen Buddhism he teaches deserve a better film than this.

I loved the music, especially the solo violin during what looked like a visitor orientation session. If anyone knows the title and composer of the piece, I'd love to know. The movie itself was kind of a letdown. It didn't seem especially illuminating, deep or even meditative. Just some monks and monastery guests going through their routines. Lots of shots of TNH, but he didn't seem to have many moving words of wisdom beyond the regular fare of "the clouds become your tea, so don't mourn your dog."