Lack of good storyline.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Famed cookbook author Edward Espe Brown takes the old adage "You are what you eat" to a whole new level. For this master chef/Zen priest believes you must actually become "one" with your food (and, as it turns out, with your utensils as well) if you are to ever attain true wholeness of body and spirit in this life. Brown has been conducting courses on how to combine the art of meditation with the art of cooking for decades now, and the documentary "How to Cook Your Life" by German filmmaker Doris Dorrie (who went on to make the superb Zen-flavored drama "Cherry Blossoms" a year later) enrolls us in one of those courses - though we don't get any actual credit for the class and, what's worse, we don't get to sample any of the food.Food for Brown has become a way of life - a spiritual and religious experience, as it were, a means of nurturing the soul as well as the body, of becoming one with nature. And the more organic and less processed that food is the better.Brown spends much of the time in the course dispensing words of wisdom on how to live life in greater harmony with the world around us, with food and cooking as the primary means of achieving that goal (let it be noted that the seminar takes place in a beautiful bucolic center in rural California). And if the philosophizing gets to be a bit too much for you after awhile - as it did for me - and Brown seems more like a self-aggrandizing drama queen than an enlightened master at times (the crying over a teapot - and not even a broken one at that - is a bit much), you can at least savor all the tasty morsels that have been lovingly arrayed for our delectation.Though, come to think of it, with his endless chatter and ceaseless pontificating, Brown puts us in mind of yet another popular expression: "How about a little less gab and a little more grub?"

A grown man cries over tea pots. That's one of the few highlights in this rather bland movie. I was interested in more of the political aspects of the film like the woman who hadn't bought groceries in 2 years and liberated fruit off the property of ...(read more) Bush voters. Very nice.Instead of having a nut-job like Chef Ramsey hosting a show like "Hell's Kitchen", FOX should get the Zen chef. He's just as insane but a much more likable way. Unfortunately this wasn't the right medium for his insanity and we feel more embarrassed for him on camera than entertained. I also wasn't left with much more of a knowledge of zen which I was truly hoping for here.

A quirky Zen leader, a couple followers who are way to interested in what he's saying and a load of other subtly absurd details make this film hilarious if you don't want to take it serious. You can enjoy this as a primer to Buddhism but you can also laugh at it as a showcase of some nutty Americans who might be slightly mistranslating the deep history of a foreign religion. Some scenes are so out of place like all of a sudden the cameras follow people scavenging for food and talking about the connection between American wastefulness and the Iraq war...you'll find half your brain going, "Hmmmmm, interesting" and the other half going "WTF are their talking about?"

I enjoyed this film very much. Food and cooking have always made an excellent vehicle for the earthy, practical wisdom of Zen. Edward Espe Brown comes across as a very genuine teacher, and humble too--unafraid to share his own human emotions, his own work on himself. I appreciated his stories and sense of humor, as well as his gentle reminders of how profound and sacred our relationship to food really is, and how far we have lost this in the contemporary world. This is a contemplative and uplifting film with a lot of heart that made my hectic mind slow down and relax...An added bonus is some rare video footage of the great Suzuki-roshi, author of "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind".