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Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

Turning 32

TURNING 32 (Robbie Hart, Luc Côté). 104 minutes. Some subtitles. Opens Friday (February 4) at the NFB. See Indie & Rep Film listings Rating: NNN


In 1992, Robbie Hart and Luc Côté embarked on an ambitious documentary project, interviewing teenagers in Brazil, India, Jamaica, Niger and Thailand for a six-part National Film Board of Canada TV series, Turning 16. And they asked everyone the same question: “What do you think your life will be like when you’re 32?”

Turning 32 finds Hart and Côté tracking down their subjects in 2008, in the style of Michael Apted’s Up series, to see if reality matches up to their imagined futures. Most of the time, of course, it doesn’t.

Their Brazilian subject, Pintinho, became a footballer and even played for his country’s top team, the Flamengo. But he found himself beholden to the club and saw his prime years wasted by what he deems an indifferent management.

As a feature-length follow-up to a six-part television documentary, Turning 32 can’t help but feel a little compressed – and there are moments when it seems obvious that Hart and Côté are trying to cram a big emotional payoff into a small window of time. The story of Sonam, who left his Tibetan monastery to start a new life in Europe, feels like it’s missing some key details.

Still, there’s no debating the scale of the project or the fascination inherent in watching children become adults right before our eyes. I’d just rather have seen it as another miniseries.

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