ONE LIFE (Michael Gunton, Martha Holmes). 85 minutes. Opens Friday (March 23). For venues and times, see Movie Listing. Rating: NNN
Don’t be surprised if bits of this feature-length paean to the glories of nature seem familiar. It’s basically a greatest-hits package compiled from BBC’s acclaimed 10-part Life series, with James Bond’s Daniel Craig acting as narrator.
Naturally, the high-def images of a few dozen of the world’s thousands of species look glorious, especially on a big screen. You know camera operators have waited hours – perhaps even days – for these mammal money shots: a female humpback whale deciding who gets to hump her, or a wise elephant pushing her daughter out of the way to rescue her granddaughter from a muddy death.
But there’s not much to the narration, and Craig often sounds slightly embarrassed to be reading his cheesy lines about how all the world’s creatures are connected by our desire to eat, propagate and make a home.
It’s a shame there’s nothing about how climate change has affected the food chain. And while George Fenton’s soundtrack is occasionally amusing (one chase sequence is scored like a Mission: Impossible film), it’s more often repetitive and manipulative. Enough with the throbbing strings, dude.
To be sure, this is a family movie, although a scene where a bunch of Komodo dragons poison a water buffalo and then tear it apart might give the little ones nightmares.
