The Age Of Stupid

Documentaries that deal with the slow apocalypse of our current environmental crisis are a tricky proposition. Movies are an effective means for trying to reach out to people, but it's also true that those in denial of the issues will avoid such films, while for those who already acknowledge that something has to be done, it's a case of preaching to the converted.

An Inconvenient Truth achieved certain success - profits at the box office, a slew of awards - because its big-gun politician star Al Gore raised issues for Americans while the US administration of the time was still in denial. The 11th Hour got Hollywood A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio to be its narrator and spokesman, though it wasn't half so successful. Other environmentally themed documentaries without a big name (such as A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash) unfortunately fell into the category of specialist interest.

The Age Of Stupid tries a different tack. Director-writer Franny Armstrong (McLibel) uses the device of having a fictional character narrating the film from the vantage point of a ravaged world in 2055. For this role Armstrong approached Pete Postlethwaite, the gaunt British character actor who has spent much of his career bringing gravitas to roles as varied as priests, dinosaur hunters and brass band leaders.

Postlethwaite's presence anchors a film that would otherwise have felt a little ramshackle. Though even his presence doesn't prevent it from being somewhat confusing, as it criss-crosses between real early 21st century news items, news footage, animations and interviews with six different people, and Postlethwaite's own archivist, clicking on his touch-screen in a tower in the oceans where Arctic ice used.

Although we're told the future scenario is "based on mainstream scientific projections", the deployment of CGI to show us the archive tower, a flooded London, an arid Chamonix, a Vegas succumbing to dunes, a Sydney in flames and a derelict Taj Mahal might make some feel it's just science fiction.

The contemporary stories are, of course, anything but sci-fi. They're all fascinating and persuasive. We see an elderly Alpine guide showing us how far the glaciers have retreated. Then there's the founder of an Indian low-cost airline with something of a Messiah complex ("Eventually I realised what my higher purpose was - it was to eradicate poverty").

An American palaeontologist and 30-year oil-company employee diplomatically defends his company's record while level-headedly questioning our dependence on the black stuff. Over in Nigeria, however, a woman's community is ravaged by another oil company's polluting exploitation. The oil equation is then extended to an Iraqi boy whose family has been destroyed by the war. Finally, there's a British couple. The husband installs windfarms, or at least tries to, but he's forced to spend more of his time fighting short-sighted NIMBYs.

This couple, Piers and Lisa Guy, give some of the film's most evocative statements. They live a nominally green lifestyle, operating a wind turbine and growing their own produce, but for his work Piers has to fly. "Apparently," says Lisa, "other than setting fire to a forest, flying is the single worst thing an individual can do to cause climate change." Piers then goes on to make the point that people fly because everyone else does. It's the norm.

But just because something's the norm, that doesn't mean it's right. Piers gives the example of Nazi Germany, where persecution and murder became the norm. It's very potent but will it be enough to shake off our complacency? Probably not, especially as the film's 2009 release comes just after the Labour government's announcement that it intends to expand our aviation infrastructure, insisting the economy depends on it. What use is short-term economic growth when the long-term fate of human civilisation is at stake?