Review: 'The Soul of Success: The Jack Canfield Story' plays like a promo for 'Chicken Soup' author's brand

By Kimber Myers

Dec. 14, 2017 1:20 PM PT

Even beyond its brief running time, “The Soul of Success: The Jack Canfield Story” feels less like a feature documentary and more like a well-produced video that plays at a seminar when the lights go down. There isn’t a lot of insight or depth regarding the bestselling author’s life and experience beyond his career achievements.

Instead, it largely offers a taste of his teachings, illuminating the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” co-creator’s principles with graphics as he speaks to rapt audiences. Director Nick Nanton’s film is more effective as a 54-minute book trailer than as an actual biography of the man at its center.

“The Soul of Success” largely focuses on the creation of the $100-million “Chicken Soup for the Soul” brand and its more than 200-plus titles, with a few personal details about the man behind it. It offers talking-head interviews with Canfield, as well as other big names in the self-help world and those whose lives have been changed by his teachings.

Considering the profound effect Canfield has had on his followers who seem likely to see him as a saint, “The Soul of Success” serving as a hagiography should not be too surprising. However, the documentary only shows the positive side of its subject, which is an approach that fits within his larger philosophy as a self-help giant but doesn’t result in an engaging film.

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