Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint

The subtitle Magician, Murderer, Saint accurately sums up both the hollow narrative and the plodding rhythm of this highly compressed rendering of the early life of the 11th-century Tibetan mystic Milarepa. Young Thopaga (Lodro), as he’s known in the film, leaves home to learn sorcery, with the goal of wreaking revenge on the evil relatives who cheated his widowed mother out of their inheritance. Scenes are brisk and goal-oriented with little connective tissue, and the kitschy special effects accompanying the young man’s dabblings in the dark arts don’t do much to compensate for lengthy arid stretches.