Review: Superwise Me! (2010)

Director: Len Branson | 73 minutes | documentary

Thanks to a strong marketing campaign and the necessary attention from TV celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Larry King, ‘The Secret’ managed to grow into a true phenomenon in 2006. The spiritual self-help book by Australian TV producer Rhonda Byrne sold more than six million copies in the United States alone and the accompanying film also received considerable acclaim. Most people only realized months later that neither the book nor the film actually add anything to the knowledge we had already acquired in recent decades. Others were inspired to find their own key to happiness, wealth or success. One of them is Len Doens, a Flemish businessman living in the Netherlands, who was once the big man behind music channel TMF and – now that he is approaching forty – has entered a phase in which he wants to discover what life is all about and who he actually is. The message conveyed by ‘The Secret’ – the ‘Law of Attraction’, which in short means that you decide how your life turns out – did not go far enough for him and so Doens decided to start his own psychological self-help project, entitled ‘ Superwise Me’.

And so he, now renamed ‘Len Branson’ by some guru because of his remarkable resemblance to multi-millionaire Richard Branson, gathered various ‘sages’ around him, all of whom adhere to a different movement to find ultimate happiness. There is a motivational speaker, a yoga instructor, a Tai-Chi teacher, a kabbalist, a neuro-linguistic programmer, a spiritual theater maker and others who claim to have found the way to inner peace and tranquility. Representatives of sectarian-sounding companies such as ‘Language of Light’ and ‘Mirror Centre’ are also invited, because Branson/Doens wanted to present ‘a spiritual buffet’ with something for everyone. There are a total of nine gurus who retreat with nine well-known and unknown Flemish and Dutch people to an old monastery in Andalusia in the south of Spain for nine days to discover themselves. Every day a different life question is central and a different ‘sage’ can explain his method in the form of a workshop. The ‘witnesses’, as the willing outsiders are called, surrender themselves to the wise. Emotions sometimes run high, especially during the discussion of big questions surrounding identity, forgiveness and life goals. ‘Superwise Me’ is primarily an experiment and that is clearly visible in the film. Every day a different life question is central and a different ‘sage’ can explain his method in the form of a workshop. The ‘witnesses’, as the willing outsiders are called, surrender themselves to the wise. Emotions sometimes run high, especially during the discussion of big questions surrounding identity, forgiveness and life goals. ‘Superwise Me’ is primarily an experiment and that is clearly visible in the film. Every day a different life question is central and a different ‘sage’ can explain his method in the form of a workshop. The ‘witnesses’, as the willing outsiders are called, surrender themselves to the wise. Emotions sometimes run high, especially during the discussion of big questions surrounding identity, forgiveness and life goals. ‘Superwise Me’ is primarily an experiment and that is clearly visible in the film.

Branson/Doens, who has no experience as a filmmaker, takes a playful approach, but the lack of structure also makes the film messy. After a short introduction that explains who the initiator is and who the people are that he takes into the Spanish mountains – incidentally spoken with a lot of commotion by ‘The Secret’ voice Michael Beckwith – we fall into the middle of the sessions. It is not properly explained what we are looking at, what the method of the ‘sage’ in question entails and for whom it is intended, we only see a fragment of the event, after which we quickly switch to the discussion surrounding a life question. Because the film has a high level of ‘cut-and-dried’ content, you never manage to seriously absorb the material. The distance between the audience and the protagonists in this psychological experiment is in fact increasing, so you cannot escape the impression that this is primarily an insider’s party. Although Branson/Doens strives for a real connection with his viewers, he cannot possibly achieve that with this approach.

Although the enthusiasm radiates from him, there is no click between Branson/Doens and his audience, ‘Superwise Me’ has too little structured a character and it knows the threshold that many people have for delving further into spiritual matters. deepen, not take away. What remains are fragments of discussions and images of bouncing ‘hippies’ in an idyllic Spanish landscape. Despite the good intentions of the inspirator, the chaotic and distant ‘Superwise Me’ unfortunately fails to penetrate the heart or soul of the viewer.