Milton’s Secret

Is it enough that a movie’s heart is in the right place? Milton’s Secret suggests it’s not. The well- meaning family drama about a bullied boy, his workaholic parents and his wise old grandpa wafts along on a pillow of New Age chatter and classic Donovan tunes for 88 minutes before setting audiences down roughly where they were when it all began.

The film is based on the writings of Vancouver-based spiritual guru Eckhart Tolle — more specifically his 2008 book Milton’s Secret: An Adventure of Discovery Through Then, When, and the Power of Now. Just adapting that title sounds like it might be a slog — all those conjunctions! — and sure enough, three writers ( including director Barnet Bain) haven’t wrung much worthy cinema out of the book’s 40 kid-friendly pages.

Milton ( William Ainscough) is an 11-year-old who worries all the time. He’s got good reasons: his parents are in financial trouble and not bothering to hide it; his classmate Carter ( Percy Hynes White) is bullying him; and his alchemy experiments keep failing to create gold out of base metals. Also, he still believes in alchemy.

Enter gramps, played by Donald Sutherland, beatific and backlit; this is the same guy who played President Snow in The Hunger Games? He cranks up Hurdy- Gurdy Man, does some gardening, befriends a mean dog ( part of the same surly family that begat Carter) and convinces Milton to live in the moment.

Maybe this Zen philosophy works better on paper, where the cardboard characters of Milton’s mom and dad could operate as the cover. Certainly the book doesn’t have to worry about what to do with Michelle Rodriguez, cast as Milton’s teacher but given nothing to do that a cheaper substitute couldn’t have handled. Bullying is an important topic; this just isn’t the film to deal with it. Ω