According to Hollywood lore, iconic film producer Samuel Goldwyn once said that movies should be entertaining, and if you want to send a message, use Western Union. (To send a telegram. It was the 1930s.) Ezna Sands' well-meaningChloe and Theohas a message: Climate change is wreaking havoc in the Arctic. We've known that since at least the Al Gore movie with the polar bears, but have you thought about itlately? Here, an Inuit man named Theo (non-actor Theo Ikummaq) travels to New York to tell the civilized world what's happening. On the teeming metropolitan streets, Theo is threatened by a gang of black men — seriously, Ezna Sands? — only to be rescued by a homeless white woman named Chloe (Dakota Johnson) who decides to help him bring his not-so-new news to the world with the help of her fellow indigents, and a lawyer (Mira Sorvino), and Larry King (still alive). There are the usual criticisms of capitalist culture — take that, Shake Weight commercials! — but the picture never rises above being a polemic. It's possible for a solidly entertaining movie to have a save the world message; the Indian animated filmDelhi Safaripulled it off a few years ago. Unfortunately, the ham-fistedChloe and Theoveers closer to Steven Seagal's enviro-debacleOn Deadly Ground, without being as much dumb fun.
Comments are closed.
