Mindwalk

Stars: Liv Ullmann (Face to Face, Cries and Whispers, Scenes From a Marriage), Sam Waterston (The Man in the Moon, Hannah and Her Sisters, TV's "I'll Fly Away"), John Heard (Cutter's Way, Awakenings, Deceived, Home Alone), Ione Skye (Say Anything, Gas Food Lodging, Samantha, Wayne's World). Imagine My Dinner With Andre in and around the grounds of a French medieval abbey, and you sort of have an idea what Mindwalk is like. Jack (Sam Waterston) is a senator who loses a bid for the presidency and comes to the island-abbey of Mont St. Michel to visit his friend, an expatriate poet named Thomas (John Heard). As the two stroll along the cobbled walk they run into Sonya (Liv Ullmann), a physicist who abandoned her research at an American university, disturbed over the possible military applications of her work. For the better part of two hours these three people walk, eat lunch, and talk about politics, systems theory, Descartes' mechanistic view of the universe, feminism, quantum physics, American media, acid rain, contemporary ethics, and the meaning of life. Based on physicist Fritjof Capra's bestselling book The Turning Point, the film was co-written by Capra, and directed by his brother Bernt, and features a lovely ethereal soundtrack by Philip Glass. Although the list of conversational topics sound like a trip back to college, Mindwalk excels at making its occasionally abstruse subject matter very interesting. What's even more impressive is the way that Capra allows each representative--the politician, the poet, and the scientist--his or her due. Each has a valid viewpoint and none serves as a straw man for the others to knock down. What emerges is a refreshingly invigorating film about ideas that is enlightening, instructive, and, frankly, more fun than a lot of movies. The busy Ione Skye makes a brief appearance as Sonya's daughter. Audience: This film will not go down well with the beer & pretzel crowd. However, adventurous filmgoers will find that Mindwalk is a real treat, addressing some of the truly meaty philosophical issues of our day in an accessible way.