An Incovenient Truth - Film Review

Global catastrophes have pummeled Earth and its inhabitants more so recently than in other times as recalled by our collective memory, opening vast opportunities for the cinematic community to chip in with its different takes on the issue.

Consequently, nature and ecology-related releases previously relegated to home video and/or television media have been finding their way increasingly onto commercial exhibitors of mainstream motion pictures.

It wasn't too long ago we beheld March of the Penguins (also known as Emperor's Journey), a nature flick packing potent emotional relevance for human viewers, and now here comes what essentially amounts to a traditional documentary-cum-travelogue, or a variety of product previously undesired by theaters busying themselves with money-making blockbusters.

However, a sensitized audience ever more concerned with gas prices and worldwide climatic transformation has made it possible to place An Inconvenient Truth alongside The Da Vinci Code and M:I:3. The result is thought provoking as intended, but not the unbiased triumph we would have hoped for, since its creators' agenda does creep into proceedings more than the bare minimum mandates.

Director David Guggenheim does well, having cut his teeth on a host of high-caliber TV projects like Party of Five, Alias and Deadwood. He helms a 100 minute-long look at former US vice-president Al Gore's world-hugging travels in promotion of CO2 emission reduction, a bid described by Gore himself as desperate and one set against a ticking time bomb embodied by rising sea levels and temperatures.

We follow Gore from locale to locale as he eloquently demonstrates the dangers faced by humanity, using some animation and lots of low-key, subtle exposure of various landscapes. Gore is seen visiting China, for example, and his ancestral farm, where he grew up learning first hand about tobacco as an economic engine and health hazard.

Unlike what some have been expecting, Truth doesn't cover a wide spectrum of environmental issues, but rather focuses almost exclusively on greenhouse gasses and the current state of energy production. One memorable sequence superimposes higher sea levels on Google Earth images of major world cities, chillingly visualizing the devastating effects such an eventuality will have on our civilization.

Other highlighted segments include sentimental, but not mushy, iconic images of mother Earth observed from space, with Gore, in his droning but all the same caring monotone, reminding people that there's really nowhere else to go.

Although dealing with a tremendous topic, Truth avoids deploying overtures, hyperbole or major clichés, and throughout maintains a personal instead of bombastic approach. The camera pans close to its subject matter, goes in and out of focus, shies away from grand visages. In total, the effect bring to mind borderline-indie pictures like Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation and Michael Winterbottom's superb but rarely seen Code 46.

An Inconvenient Truth likewise boasts no top-dollar effects to dazzle you with, hoping to sway the opinions of those in attendance by simply putting forth what most of us already know, yet opt to ignore because acknowledgement is indeed inconvenient to our present lifestyle.

Thankfully, there's little of the horse-flogging so traditional with preachy items of this ilk. Gore doesn't point fingers at anyone in particular, yet succeeds in letting us know precisely who's to blame for each problem denoted.
This is because Truth covers familiar territory. It does not reveal any hitherto unknown facts about climate change, nor shatter staunchly held misconceptions, save maybe for its outright conclusion that debating humanity's impact on the environment is a moot point. Gore claims there's no question as to whether we are influencing our own habitat by way of technology, a quandary of syntax more than factual validity.

An Inconvenient Truth's greatest contribution lies in being a pleasant wakeup call, poking folks with painful realities without the thorny criticism and ensuing guilt-trip.
Of course, having a seasoned speaker like Al Gore helps a lot, and it's easy to listen to him explain those things we'd like to forget knowing.

What's not so effortless for them is maintaining credibility, and when Gore comes out and says now mainland China has higher environmental standards than the US things begin to fall apart, as anyone who's ever been to both parts of the world knows full well. Such sweeping statements go against the otherwise subdued grain of the project, and serve as one more post-it note: that perhaps there's another agenda running in the background.

We're not saying Gore's clamoring for another go at the White House, but certainly something's afoot, especially with the obviously positive play China gets in the documentary, with not even a peep out about its repeated environmental disasters, poor enforcement, rampant development and otherwise dismal track record when it comes to issues of ecology.

All that goes on to the tune of denouncing American and other Western societies as chiefly responsible for adverse environmental changes, and while this too is handled with care and laid-back class, it's discordant nonetheless and indicative of a hidden current bubbling under An Inconvenient Truth's supposedly benign surface.

Hence, this comes to pass as a public-minded exercise demanding cautious respect from observers. Go watch it for the prime relevance it has on your life and the lives those who will come after. Watch it so you can hear some elements of the truth, particularly those we should be conscious of but elect to ignore.

Don't watch Truth with a gullible mind, and keep ready that all-important salt shaker, it'll come in useful once taking what Gore says in perspective becomes as imperative as ingesting the responsibility we all have for our common fate on this blue planet.

From stylish presentation to ludicrously banal environmental tips upon closing ("recycle", "buy en electric car"), Truth still defies grading. It gets the job done even when devoid of bona fide revelation, achieving goals in a rational manner while wanton activism tempts, and that is impressive.

Rating: * * * ½

Directed by David Guggenheim
Starring Al Gore
2006, English, 100 minutes