AIR INDIA 182 (D: Sturla Gunnarsson, Canada). 100 minutes. Thursday (April 17), 9:30 pm, Winter Garden Friday (April 18), 1:30 pm, Isabel Bader. Rating: NN
Apparently concerned that a simple documentary about the horrific bombing of Air India 182 wouldn’t be gripping enough, director Sturla Gunnarsson jazzes things up by devoting fully half his running time to “dramatic re-enactments” shot in the self-con-sciously jittery style of Paul Greengrass’s United 93.
These pantomimed sequences prove either redundant or inexplicably contradictory to the testimony provided by relatives and law-enforcement officials. Glimpses of bodies in actual footage of the recovery effort off the coast of Ireland are genuinely horrific. But given the general tone of the film up to that point, they can’t help seeming terribly exploitative, too.
