Protagonist (2007)

A documentary including four men who went through extreme u-turns in their lives: a German terrorist, a bank robber, an "ex-gay" evangelist, and a martial arts student.

At first, the German didn't seem to fit with the rest of the interviewees, I guess because I didn't identify with him as quickly as I did with the rest. The other three seemed to be ordinary people who had made major mistakes in life, but the German seemed to be no ordinary man. By the end of the film, though, I realized that perhaps the director Jessica Yu was trying to show that we are all just ordinary people doing the best that we can. It's interesting that a female director chose to include only men in this study.

The puppet element definitely could have been left out. It took the profundity of the film's message & turned it into silliness. It reminded me of Being John Malkovich. However, in that film, the silliness of the puppetry was kind of the point.

Protagonist on IMDb