We don't know anything about quantum physics but we know what we like -- and we like What the #$*! Do We Know?!, a film about creating one's own reality via thought. Self-empowerment for dummies, you might say. This is a terrific way to spend 109 minutes.
What the #$*! Do We Know?! is a mix of talking heads, animation and storytelling, a documentary/fairy tale combo that uses one person's life and disappointments to illustrate the science of possibility.
Marlee Matlin stars in the fictional part of the film as a divorced and disillusioned photographer. Her sequences, which are the least attractive part of the movie, connect with interviews with doctors, scientists, physicists and philosophers, all of whom talk about such items as how thought changes the environment. Changes reality. Changes history. What the #$*! Do We Know?! is a film that connects the mind, the body, the emotions and the spirit but it's not some airy-fairy undertaking or cultish outing. It's more like the spot where science and religion unite.
This is a film that explains how the whole human drama is just a pack of brain chemistry and how we get addicted to our own emotional responses. It also outlines everything you wanted to know about peptides but were afraid to ask.
Yikes.
What the #$*! Do We Know?! is not afraid of the "Who are we?" and "Why are we here?" questions of the universe; "We still have this ugly, backwater, superstitious idea of God," one participant begins, and you can only hope someone will take Mel Gibson to see this movie.
The most spellbinding aspect of What the #$*! Do We Know?! is the ongoing discussion about how thought creates or changes reality, how people surrender to illusion, how it is possible to rewire the brain with thought.
When you read that there are people who have seen this film 12 or 15 times, it sounds like fringe-element material. Once you've seen it yourself, however, those multiple viewings make sense. What the #$*! Do We Know?! supports thinking, reading and learning and quietly condemns mainstream culture, and that's worth your money any day of the week.
WHAT THE #$*! DO WE KNOW?!
Starts today at the Globe.
Sun Rating: 4 out of 5