Movie Review: "Where in the World is Osama bin Laden"

Just to break the daily monotony of workdom, I hopped over to the Angelika for a quick bit of entertainment. And since I wasn't aware that Morgan Spurlock's latest flick wasn't even out until checking the listings, it turned into an easy decision as to what to see.

Mind you, I was a bit doubtful about whether I'd enjoy anything about the movie. Obviously, Spurlock does not locate OBL or else it's be all over the news. Secondly, I've long since been of the opinion that Spurlock is a rather poor imitation of Michael Moore ... and that's about the best thing I might say about Moore's moviemaking ability. And lastly, what was the overall statement that Spurlock might choose to make with what, I presumed would be, a polemic.

All in all, the movie still found a way to disappoint even though I had all those doubts to check off. As far as polemics go, this one wasn't particularly entertaining or amusing. His statement? ... rather weak. And the movie only reminded me further about why it is that I see him as a bad imitation of Moore.

The plus is that there are some interesting scenes from the Middle East with Spurlock engaging with both the locals and the US military. You get a sense of at least some of the danger he might have been through in just being there. There's also a general feelgood vibe to the telling of his story - mainly that there's less that separates us from normal, everyday Afghanis, Pakistanis, and Saudis than we might fear. And as far as polemic points go, he does raise a valid point - though, one widely held by folks of numerous political stripes - that if OBL were found and offed today, nothing would change in the state of world affairs.

Unfortunately, the movie revolves around a semi-narcissistic vantagepoint of our protagonist and his wife having a baby, with the time Spurlock spends overseas seen as eating away at him since he's away from his pregnant wife. The point is to drive home Spurlock's point that he wants to make the world safe for his kid and what bigger threat to protect against than OBL? And at the end of it {I guess this qualifies as a spoiler ... so spoiler alert!}, we see Spurlock on the edge of the Afghani Tribal Region, staring at a sign indicating their inhospitality toward foreigners, only to turn back with a whimpering "It's not worth it."

What I hold up as the biggest weakness in Spurlock's style is the lack of consistency in his argument. Granted, Michael Moore had issues in Farenheit 9/11 when he began by demonizing the military only to feign hero-worship on the returning injured who shared his particular distaste for the war in Iraq. Here, Spurlock cinematically mocks the confusion over where OBL is by filming several people offering numerous answers. Only later, we see him deadset on targetting the Tribal Regions since "everyone tells me he's there." The bigger weakness, of course, is that the movie trudges along with some minor insight and minor dark humor ... only to arrive at a weak ending with nothing left to hold the movie together.

Note to self: Next time "Baby Mama" is an option, see it instead.