John Robbins is a brilliant person who made bold choices as a young man and it worked. He renounced wealth and privilege out of conviction and led a much more interesting life than he probably would have as a mega-heir to the Baskin-Robbins empire. This film is simply a sit down with John as he tells his story for 1h42m.
I was surprised at how rudimentary the production was. B-roll is dull, repetitive (we see the same photos over and over again), and the acted portions (to illustrate scenes in John's relationship with his dad) are poorly produced. The actors look nothing like the people they represent and even the ages and body shapes don't come close. In the hospital scene, the actor looks like a healthy middle aged man, representing a 90 year old man dying of cancer. He wears cheap glasses whereas all the photos indicate Mr. Robbins always wore designer glasses, little things that make the illustration not work.
All that aside, I could not stop watching for one simple reason: John is so well spoken and his story so compelling that I could sit for hours and just listen to him. Thankfully the sound is very good and the scene of John speaking is well filmed. Would you take two hours of your time to sit down with a brilliant man and hear him tell his story? If so, this film is for you.
