I must admit I was skeptical when I heard about a great film that was 2 ½ hours long – and almost completely silent. Intrigued, however, I couldn’t help but to order it and find out how a movie stays afloat without words.

When “Into Great Silence” arrived, I put it in my player and started cleaning up in the living room. Surely they didn’t expect me to simply sit for that amount of time and watch a movie without words, did they? As I cleaned, I glanced over at the screen.

It reveals the day to day life of Carthusian monks, who live in a breathtaking valley in the French Alps. They live under a vow of silence (except during weekly walks, where they’re allowed to chat, and during daily praying and singing). The camera follows them as they peel oranges for lunch, or walk down the road, gravel crunching. We see the light hit the ancient charterhouse walls, and the leaves turn as seasons change.

As the movie went on, I found myself getting more and more drawn in, and finally the irresistible pull had me sitting, mesmerized, dishrag in hand. Each scene is like a work of art as the viewer watches rain fall into puddles, circles widening around each drop, or snowflakes drifting and settling onto rooftops as a lone bird calls through the silence.

I was drawn into the very rhythms of this life, the ebb and flow of rain and prayer, of sunlight and chanting. The spiritual simplicity of the movie wasn’t so much something to watch, as something to release into and experience. Deeply. It takes our busy minds a bit of getting used to, but once the movie’s quiet has made our minds still, there’s nothing left to do but be there as the images roll by…