Movie Review - Life in a Day

Director: Ridley Scott, Tony Scott
Year: 2011

I've said before that I'm not really into documentaries, but I sure seem to be watching a lot of them.  Usually, they come off as so self-centered that they are off putting and can become a little pretentious.  Films like Religulous become so focused on one opinion that, even if you agree, it starts to seem like bad journalism rather than good documentary film making.   However, Life in a Day does not fall into this trap.  Perhaps the subject matter is so broad that it keeps it safe from the usual flaws, too big to fail so to speak.  But whatever it is, documentaries this good only come along so often.

This film tells the story of life.  The Scott brothers challenged film makers and amateurs alike all over the world to capture footage of life; their life, the lives of others, natural life, anything.  Shot all on one day, July 24th, 2010, people from every imaginable location and walk of life filmed their lives, their habits, their food, their love.  And after 4,500 hours of images, what was created was a microcosm of human existence during a given time.  Adults, children, animals, poor, rich, alone, happy, hungry; almost every aspect of life was captured and shown without filter, creating a beautiful mosaic of humanity.

I really enjoyed watching this film.  It was only ninety minutes, but I could have watched it all day.  There were so many fascinating and wonderful scenes that I wanted more of, that I wanted to learn more about and experience again.  So many mundane details of life are the same everywhere, so many people all over the world tying to survive, finding love, feeling sad; it sounds cheesy but we're all humans and we all live in the same world.  Life in a Day was a very pleasant film to sit & watch, and it left me feeling happy & sad at the same time.  But, hey, I guess that's life.

My rating: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰