Review: FREAKANOMICS

There’s nothing film studios love more than getting the movie rights to a hit book. But how do you adapt a work like Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s 2005 best seller FREAKANOMICS that consists as mainly a series of essays into one feature film? Well, they decided to make it like a series of short films ala Woody Allen’s film of EVERY THING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX… and Mel Brooks’s THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD PART ONE. Using the anthology format they decide to have each segment directed by different filmmakers as in NEW YORK STORIES and FOUR ROOMS.  The resulting film is a mixed bag, but an interesting experiment contrasting the styles of several contemporary documentarians.

The introductory and transitional scenes of the authors are directed by Seth Gordon(THE KING OF KONG) using a mix of live talking head interviews and animation. The first essay, “A Roshida by Any Other Name” directed by Morgan Spurlock(SUPER SIZE ME), examines whether a child’s future success is determined by their given first name by mainly looking at many of the creative names popular in the African-American community. It’s followed by “Pure Corruption” directed by Alex Gibney(ENRON:THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM) which compares the recent scandals in Japan’s sumo wrestling circles to the banking scandals in the United States. Next up is “It’s Not Aways a Wonderful Life” directed by Eugene Jarecki(WHY WE FIGHT) which makes a controversial connection between the drop of crime statistics in the late 1980’s and a landmark court decision of the early 1970’s. The film concludes with “Can a Ninth Grader Be Bribed to Succeed?” directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing(JESUS CAMP) which looks at an experiment by researches at The University of Chicago to see whether if students at a Chicago Heights high school would improve their grades if they were rewarded with money.  

Of course each film reflects the individual filmmaker’s style and some are given more screen time than others. Spurlock’s segment runs at a brisk pace, but some scenes border on racial caricature when trying to make a point. Gibney’s Sumo profile is the longest segment with too many lingering shots of the Japanese cityscape. It seems the most in need of an editorial trimming. Jarecki’s short may be the most divisive, but he deludes it’s power with far too many old black and white footage and distracting graphics.The final short by Grady and Ewing offers the most surprises by focusing on two students, but I wanted to know a bit more about their home lives and the two mothers that try and work with them. In an entertaining sequence one mom stays on her son’s case over a test on “To Kill a Mockingbird” (“Did ya’ read the book” almost becomes her mantra). This anthology documentary is almost like a buffet meal. You’ll enjoy some entrees more than others, but you she leave feeling well nourished.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars