A unique piece of work, but it certainly has its drawbacks. Although there are a few interesting bits for the most it's pretty much exactly what you would expect it to be. It's basically the cinematic equivalent of new age music... unless you want to spend the time just reflecting, reading a description of the movie is a fair substitute for watching it. But Gröning definitely achieved what he set out to do, and the film does allow for a lot of reflection if that's what you're looking for.

"A 162-minute journey into a cloistered world of ritualistic repetition, always with the promise of revelation and transcendence." - Keith Uhlich

The opportunity to look into the otherworldly lives of these monks is a wonderful opportunity. Groning mixes silence with images of stark (and occasionally lush) beauty in and around the monastery. That said, the best moments in the film are those when we get to hear the monks speak, due in part I think to the lack of real formal structure to the piece. This sense of randomness in most of the sequencing and editing seems to be at odds with the strictly regimented lives of the monks themselves.

Man, this is slow. Don't get me wrong, it's a fascinating topic and it's got some beautiful photography. But the film's approach - to plunge head first without much context other than repeated biblical verses, to show scene after scene of praying and bell-chiming - is a bit too much; sitting in a theater and hearing all the seat-shifting, coughing, and whispering was kind of annoying. I didn't find the result to be that profound (except for, ironically, the few dialogue scenes).