Breaking Habits: Film Review

Breaking Habits: Film Review

Director: Rob Ryan

Starting off with a killer hook and a great pre-titles sequence does little for what follows in Rob Ryan's Breaking Habits.

The idea of nuns dealing drugs is neatly encapsulated in the opening, where star of the piece Sister Kate reveals how an alcoholic woman came up to her begging for help, and how she in turn offered her the idea of marijuana.

But in truth, what follows in Breaking Habits meanders greatly, delivering little on its kooky premise other than a formulaic look at Sister Kate and her Sisters of the valley who grow medicinal cannabis Stateside, much to the chagrin of the local law.

The film offers up some kind of great confrontation between law enforcement and ideologies as America starts to struggle with the use of medicinal cannabis, and the country begins to feel over-run.

Combined with the ease of access to guns, and the desire to defend their crops, there's a real feeling that something is brewing here.

But what Ryan presents is nothing of the high promised in the pre-titles.

And disappointingly, conflict resolves itself in the kind of way that feels like a child resolving a story of their own writing.

Breaking Habits is an amiable enough look at the Sisters, along with evocations of how marijuana saved some of their own, but it never really delves deep enough below the surface to provide anything of depth.

Early reveals show tragedy in Sister Kate's past, and there's a current problem holding court over them, but Ryan's so keen to flit about that the film never fully grabs you as it proceeds.

Much like a medicinal high, the rush is palpable - but the comedown as this documentary drags on is severe, and disappointingly, a bit dull.