On the other hand, as a test to show how well the mess-creator really knows the hidden order of his system, or lack thereof, Freed had tasked Franklin with finding a letter he'd received from Ronald Reagan. He never did.
While My Messy Life embraces the upside of clutter, Freed does show the downside if you choose to see it beyond his messy stacks of papers and files and CDs and ... well, god knows what else is in those stacks. Hopefully not moldy bread. Though, as the film points out, that's how penicillin was discovered.
Unarguably productive Internet guru Esther Dyson, who feels tidying would be an inefficient use of her time, at one point sharply warns Freed not to step on anything in her cluttered office. That would be an easier task if there were more than a few square inches of bare floor space.
Man-on-the-street interviews with couples of varying levels of neatness show the tensions those differences can cause in relationships. It’s a point not quite made in the mostly peaceful coexistence of two of Freed’s interview subjects, the neat Sandra Phillips and her messy husband Stan Posner. They share a home office with a sharp division between their distinctive desks and despite their occasional "border negotiations," offer hope to mismatched couples everywhere.
Freed’s overall argument is convincing, particularly that random connections are made in the mind when it faces the random piles of god-knows-what, fostering creativity. Yet we see shots of him trying and failing to convince people to expose their own messy lives to the cameras, as well as scenes of him accidentally knocking things over in his own and others' messes.
If you're a neatnik, prepare to feel smugly amused at the delusional folks in My Messy Life. But if you're something of a mess yourself, you've found your people among these creative souls who offer no apologies for their messy lives.
Article comments
1 - Greg McKone
Great review Diane,
Thank you.
Greg.