SXSW Movie Review: Battle in Seattle
Director: Stuart Townsend
Drama
out of 5 stars
Battle in Seattle was the movie I was most anticipating seeing at this year’s SXSW. Having been a close follower of the WTO’s antics since the events that unfolded in Seattle in November 1999, I was looking forward to this vital topic moving back into the limelight. Documentaries like “Life and Debt” have done a great job showcasing the reality that is indentured servitude once a country accepts a loan from the WTO. But as we all know, documentaries hardly make it into the limelight and I was hoping Charlize Theron would help to pull in the crowds.
Which is just what the folks at SXSW thought as they used the above pic to help sell the movie. And it worked. The screening was packed and the crowd was really hyped. They also seemed quite politically saavy. It is Austin afterall. Writer/Director Stuart Townsend and lead Martin Henderson were on hand before the show to say a few words:
Unfortunately I think I would have preferred, and the world would have benefited from, another documentary. While I’m grateful to Townsend for telling the story at all I wish he would have employed a more seasoned screenwriter. The movie is far too earnest and wears its heart on its sleeve and the characters say and do silly things. The Charlize/Woody Harelson storyline is entirely unnecessary and distracts us from diving deep and educating people as to what exactly is wrong with the WTO. An additionally frustrating storyline is the plight of the representative from Medecins Sans Frontier who can’t get anyone to hear his case as terror unfolds on the streets. You’d almost walk away from the movie saying… “Damn those protesters, now they’ll be no AIDS medication in Africa!”, when what I think Townsend meant to say was that no one in the WTO would have listened to him anyway. A pretty muddled point and a frustratingly muddled movie.
