This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Blistering performances.

I'm about ten years late in investigating THE SECRET, but I remember the intense interest surrounding its release. The biggest triumph that both the book and its movie version can claim is their marketing campaign, which nearly hooked me at the time. Though I had not officially watched it before now, it turns out that I had unwittingly already acquainted myself with the secret…and dismissed it. The "Secret" is the "law of attraction" - a component of the New Thought movement and the acceptance of which relies on a lack of skepticism and the inability to spot logical fallacies.The movie is essentially a documentary with some loosely-dramatized inserts. It makes the point that thoughts and feelings attract experiences through a form of cosmic ordering, and that the universe "delivers" the products of our thinking. Thereby, the movie claims that we can utilize positive thinking to achieve our goals and acquire virtually anything we please.THE SECRET boasts strong production values and is engagingly directed by Drew Heriot. It weaves together a fairly consistent narrative through the words of a diverse set of interviewees, from New Thought minister Michael Beckwith to various quantum physicists and even feng shui consultant Marie Diamond. They sound like they know what they're talking about, and the film pushes a message of hope to virtually anybody in need of change in their lives. Disappointingly, it's false hope. On a good day, I could wheedle out the kernels of factuality scattered throughout the production, but this is not a good day and I am not feeling generous. This film earns its low rating for three major reasons:1. It does not support its premise. THE SECRET is an empty notion, buoyed by the weightless "proof" of personal testimony and the writer's invention that the heroes of history demonstrate their awareness of it thru mined quotations. I won't get even into the claims of "energy = god" and that all diseases are caused by stress, but the film fails to provide the objective evidence to prove its premise as anything other than magical thinking. 2. It encourages victim-blaming. One of the film's anecdotes describes a gay man who endured nonstop homophobic harassment, and then claims that he invited such abuse by focusing on it. By this premise, having negative emotions – even justified ones – is the same as taping a "kick me" sign to your own back, to which the conscious universe obliges. That's pretty low of you, movie. 3. Its premise is unfalsifiable. Any "law" worth considering includes some means by which it could theoretically be proved wrong, and the law of attraction has none. Should THE SECRET not work for you, you're just doing something wrong.The movie provides very little time for contemplation: the interviewees bombard you with nonstop babble, with rare moments to reflect on what are meant to be world-changing ideas. I don't blame the filmmakers: since they're pushing people to accept mystical explanations to ordinary circumstances, it needs to lay its nonsense on very thick. It wasn't thick enough for me, though, as I remain unconvinced. Leave it be, folks.

This is an infomercial to sell the books and courses associated with the secret. The only concept that makes sense is that you can control your feelings towards the events in your life. But cancer is cancer. You can choose to be positive and optimistic about the outcome, but you still have cancer. The idea that you can wish wealth and material goods into your life this is where the worst of the worst. These people who qualify success by how much they have are truly clueless.Some will say that the message is broader than this, but there is a clear link made between acquiring more wealth through the secret.I would advise people to travel to some of the poorest countries in world and they will see that this utter BS. The wealthy in many poor countries have achieved this through tyranny and oppression. But this is not mentioned. So what they are saying is that if you want to be in the company of some of the most ruthless killers on the planet, then the secret is your path to achieving it.

First, what is The Law of Attraction (TLoA)? Let's say you're poor and really want to be rich. Instead of always complaining about being poor and always focusing on what you don't have, TLoA says that you should visualize yourself as rich. See yourself in this situation. Feel what you would feel if you were in that situation. Then, somehow, money will come to you.Simply stated, it is the belief that what you focus on is what you get (or create for yourself), and there is some truth to that – but not for any of the mystical reasons claimed in this terrible movie. The movie indicates that a number of famous people knew "the secret", including Einstein, Plato, Newton and Edison. However, the movie offers no proof that any of these people knew of, agreed with or used the law of attraction.The movie also claims that the people in power in society and business have long known of this law and worked to keep it from the rest of us. Scenes are shown of people being persecuted for trying to steal the secret and (I assume) bring it out to the rest of us.No proof of this is offered and to the best of my knowledge, no conscious effort has ever been made to keep TLoA secret. But this is my point: Changing your thinking changes nothing out there, in the vast universe surrounding you. It changes something inside of you. Changing your perception, your focus, your emotions and your thinking from negative to positive (from what you lack to what you want) has an enormous effect on your motivation, energy and creativity and that's why you will then be more efficient working towards your goals. It's that simple.No electromagnetic waves emanate from your head, magically transforming the universe. No mystical vibrations affect your surroundings. Changing your thinking does not change the quantum states of objects around you in any reliable, useful way. The universe doesn't stand ready to grant your every wish.Rather, you change yourself and THEN you change your circumstances. It works through a combination of entirely non-mystical, psychological and rational mechanisms, including confirmation bias, positive thinking and optimism.

As soon as the first guy starts speaking, it becomes apparent that this is just an elaborate infomercial. I'm not denying the power of positive thinking, but it's offensive to suggest that people in truly horrible conditions (jews in concentration camps, starving kids in Africa) could/can just think their way out of those conditions. I mean, who the frig do these people think they are? Well, they're authors...they all have books and products to sell. They all have well-groomed smiles on their faces to show you that they are living with the secret and are happy and prosperous and what not, but they come off as superficial, disingenuous and quite cheesy. It honestly makes me mad just thinking about it, so I'm just gonna change the way I'm thinking right now and use the "secret" to end this review.