My Scientology Movie - Typically interesting, but nothing we didn’t already know

I’ve been a fan of Louis Theroux since his humble TV documentary-making beginnings of the early nineties.  Without exception I’ve enjoyed every small screen outing he’s produced.  Therefore, I was pretty damn excited when I found his latest (and first) big-screen topic was about none other than one of the most talked about subjects of the modern age – scientology.

It’s one of the fastest-growing religions, mainly in America, but its churches have been spreading across the world at a steady rate.  Now, the thing about scientology that most people seemed so bemused about, is its secrecy.  If I wanted to know about any other world religion, I could probably go into any library or bookstore and pick up a text on how it worked and what it was based on, i.e. the bible for Christianity.  The – dare I say – ‘problem’ with scientology is that no one really speaks openly about what it’s all about, leaving much speculation.

The church itself often doesn’t do interviews, meaning all we – the public – has to go on is what former members have to say about its practices.  So, here comes Louis into the fray.  Now, as I just said, the church doesn’t do interviews, therefore we don’t get any ‘official’ conformation/denials as to the church’s ways and means of doing things.  We just get the usual former members.

So, to fill the run-time, Louis re-enacts various ‘scenes’ from what the ‘whistle-blower’ says happened.  These, although if true are powerful, are only one man’s word as to what went on.  I’m not saying they’re false, but, if a documentary is going to be neutral, we’re really only treated to one side of the argument.  However, of course because scientologists won’t contribute this is hardly Louis’ fault – it just makes for a one-sided argument.

If you don’t know much about the subject, you may find it all quite enlightening and even shocking, but, if you’re like me and have seen plenty of previous documentaries on scientology, then it’s all a bit ‘samey.’ It seems that the church don’t like unwanted press/media intrusion and go to lengths to ‘retaliate.’ This comes in the form of following those following them and Louis often finds himself on the end of their film cameras, plus a few – slightly weird – people simply coming up to ‘see what’s going on’ – do they have an alternative agenda?  I guess that’s up to you to decide.

Louis Theroux is his natural mild-mannered self (or rather ‘persona’) making the documentary easy to watch.  However, the very subject matter doesn’t really lend itself to investigating because we only get one side of the story and there’s nothing here that most people who are interested in the subject don’t already know (or suspect).  Therefore, a lot of the screen-time feels like ‘padding’ with all these staged reconstructions of alleged events.  No concrete conclusions are drawn from it all and whether it’s simply a modern-day religion which is no worse than the more ‘established’ faiths is up to you to decide.  If you don’t know much about scientology, it will certainly make you think and any fans of Louis – like me – will definitely find plenty to enjoy.  I just felt there was nothing here worthy of the extended run-time.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that