Review: ‘Enlighten Up’

What is Yoga? Is it a life-changing journey to higher spiritual meaning or simply a good way to stay in shape? What are the differences in the various branches and schools of Yoga? ENLIGHTEN UP is a clever title for an unfocused new documentary that attempts to tackle the subject of Yoga. It raises a lot of these questions but ultimately provides few answers.

Filmmaker Kate Churchill, herself a Yoga enthusiast, takes the SUPER SIZE ME route of having a willing subject immerse himself in the world-wide Yoga industry and chronicle his adventures. For several months, Churchill follows journalist Nick Rosen, introduced as a “Yoga skeptic†�, as he travels the globe taking classes with several famous Yoga gurus. I may know more about Yoga than I did before I saw ENLIGHTEN UP but it’s a mediocre documentary with a confusing point-of-view.

The subjects of Rosen’s tour of the world of Yoga are a variety of new-age mystics, aerobics instructors, numerologists, and opportunists. Brawny WWF wrestler Diamond Dallas Page leads “Yoga for regular guys†� and openly exploits the practice as a way to ogle sexy women. Madan Kataria, the “guru of giggling†�, has his followers literally laugh their way to inner peace. B.K.S. Iyengar and Norman Allen are considered masters of modern Yoga and they attempt to explain the spiritual side of the practice in the brief time they are given.

These gurus are all interesting, funny, and wise and the best parts of ENLIGHTEN UP are when they are allowed simply to explain their various philosophies. Unfortunately, too much of the documentary isn’t about them as much as it’s about Kate Churchill and Nick Rosen and that’s where the film lost me. The gurus are among the believers and the premise is laid out that they will convert the skeptic, but they’re never challenged to and the film becomes a series of missed opportunities. Churchill is often heard just off-camera complaining about the commercialization of Yoga, something She’s practiced for many years, yet confronts Rosen about her concerns and reservations instead of these teachers.

Nick Rosen is introduced as a skeptic (the film’s tagline is “A Skeptic’s Journey into the World of Yoga†�), but it’s initially unclear just what it is he’s so skeptical of. Maybe director Churchill should have opened her film with a brief history of Yoga or an overall definition of these spiritual goals that Rosen finds so easy to resist. Rosen keeps reminding us that he’s a journalist, but he often talks more about himself instead of digging deep into his subject’s beliefs and asking revealing questions. Unkempt and charisma-challenged, Rosen often seems disinterested in the film that he is starring in and not particularly curious about what he’s being taught. He gives very little background about himself (other than his mother was something of a hippy) and it’s unclear why this 30-year-old man was chosen to take this journey as the surrogate for the director. Worse, an unhappy Churchill can constantly be heard nagging Rosen on the soundtrack. I’m not sure why she didn’t follow the SUPER SIZE ME’s model and star in the film herself. Some of Rosen’s diary is slowly typed across the screen in the form of close-ups of his laptop, and his world travels are represented by animated push-pins running across a global map, pointless devices that seem like filler in an already brief (82 minute) film. At one point in ENLIGHTEN UP Churchill herself looks at the camera and declares “I’m sick of Yoga!†�. It’s a revealing moment in a shallow film.

‘Enlighten Up’ opens today in Saint Louis at the Tivoli Theatre.

[Overall: 1.5 out of 5 stars]