MONSOON (Sturla Gunnarsson). 108 minutes. Some subtitles. Opens Friday (February 27). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NN
It’s hard to shake the suspicion that Sturla Gunnarsson‘s high-definition tour of India during monsoon season would be a far more impressive accomplishment had Jennifer Baichwal not already made Act Of God and Watermark, documentaries that actually dig into the mythologies we create to rationalize the indifference of the natural world.
In contrast, Gunnarsson’s Monsoon is nothing more than a splendidly photographed travelogue. The filmmaker wanders through India’s provinces capturing spectacular images of rainfall and flooding, but he never builds a thesis or grapples with what he sees.
A sequence shot during a religious festival comes dangerously close to framing celebrants as sideshow freaks, while Gunnarsson’s voice-over tells us he has no idea what any of it means. Isn’t that what Wikipedia is for?
There is a tradition of observational documentaries that present events and images without offering context or insight, but Monsoon doesn’t even do that. There’s no curiosity, not even a pretense of investigation.
It’s just tourism.
