Impressions: I Am Not Your Guru

Charisma. If you ever need to define Tony Robbins in a single word, that word is charisma. With a broad smile, a confronting but supportive manner of speech, and seemingly boundless energy, he has undoubtedly impacted on the lives of millions of his unwavering followers across the planet.

So when he exclaims to the crowd “I am not your guru,” it is hard to accept. Does Robbins really believe he is merely a conduit for change in these people’s lives, or is it just part of the show?

If it’s these kind of questions you’re expecting Emmy and Academy Award nominated director Joe Berlinger to extract from the world’s biggest life coach, you’re going to finish this film feeling sorely disappointed.

I Am Not Your Guru focuses on the U.S. leg of Date with Destiny, Robbins’ iconic $4995, six day, annual event that sees a flock of 2500 people arrive in search of a solution to their problems. Anybody who has been to the event can tell you the energy is palpable; it’s a rock show at which every audience member is wondering whether the band will launch their next song with a personal dedication to them.

As it turns out, Berlinger was one of those people back in 2012. The opening sequence pegs him and his crew as outsiders – the first outsiders to be allowed to film the event, in fact – but this statement is beguiling at best, deceitful at worst, considering that the documentary was entirely funded by Robbins himself.

No surprise then that what follows is barely more than an extended version of the infomercials that launched him to fame in the late 1980s, legitimised by the presumption of Berlinger’s impartial direction. Little of the two-hour running time is spent showing the behind-the-scenes staff at work, instead opting to bolster the illusive construct that is the idol Tony Robbins, even as he humbly laughs “I think your film needs to be based on something bigger than that”. Berlinger is always asking just the right questions to further Robbins’ grandeur, and it gets boring fast. The director had final cut, but his seeming obsession with the Robbins product proves how flaccid that power becomes when the crafter of the film becomes too attached to the subject.

That’s sure to satisfy the fans, but so what? They were already going to buy the $5000 ticket.

If there are any moments in the film that are going to convince the curious to attend a Tony Robbins event, they are the interventions. They make up the bulk of the doco, and show Robbins doing what he does best: confrontation.

The first audience member Robbins hones in on is Sienna, a 19 year-old who begins by saying that she’s attending to foster the willpower to remain on her current diet, only to reveal minute later that her real issue lies in confronting her father over his drug abuse. “I’ll tell everyone what your biggest problem is,” he announces not just to Sienna, but to all those in the room. “You think you shouldn’t have them.” He then guides the young girl in the process of rebuilding the relationship.

This is just one of many stories that take up most of the doco’s running time. They are remarkable stories, stories of discontent and abuse not unlike Robbins’ own. Some will be take them as a call to action and buy a ticket to the next show, but for the rest of us watching them unfold from our lounge, they are little more than spectacle, especially in such ludicrous moments as when he orders a man to roar, which is then mirrored by the rest of the men in the room as if they were compelled by the power of Christ himself.

I Am Not Your Guru ends with the kind of euphoric, cliched ending you’d expect. There’s an eruption of joy from the attendees, testimonials from those who were featured (of course, there’s not a single negative word to be heard), and then Robbins closes with a pitch for those inspired to join the program. The pitch only lasts a minute, and we should be grateful for that; at the events themselves, the pitch can often go for hours.

Yes, it is charming. Yes, as a highlight reel, it is mostly faithful to the experience. But is it substantial?

Absolutely not.

Those who are fans of Robbins, or have attended his events before, will watch it with wide-eyed catharsis and love every moment of it.

Those who are curious about what being is a room with Robbins is like can watch it, and may just get the taste that leads to them putting down a deposit.

Everybody else should not waste their time.