Fast Food Nation
Five years ago, Fast Food Nation was a book written by a relatively unknown investigative journalist named Eric Schlosser. It was well researched and very insightful, and like Morgan Spurlock did a few years later with his movie along the same vein, it got people talking about what they were eating.
When it was announced that Fast Food Nation was going to be made into a movie, those who read the book were excited at the prospect of such a great book being brought to the screen, but wondered how a fact-heavy book would translate to the screen without being a bore. Answer: Cut out those boring facts. All of them. Cut the “non” from non-fiction. Cut plot, cut plot development, and cut anything that might incite discussion. Instead of raising the issues brought forth by the book, ‘Fast Food Nation: The Movie’ has been bought, repackaged, reprocessed and semi-fictionalized in a hodgepodge of Traffic-esque narratives that are meant to represent the big problem with the Fast Food Industry.
Fast Food Nation: The Movie takes important issues that deserve attention and debate, and reduces them to 10 minute caricatures. The (mostly) talented ensemble cast of Greg Kinnear, Bruce Willis, Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke has little more to do on screen than utter their lines and wait for the next narrative to be presented. The stories of all players in the Fast Food Industry are covered in this movie, from about exploited immigrant workers, idealistic PETA-types with big ideas and not much common sense, and industry worker-types with no idea their company is destroying America who slowly start to see the light. In the end, however, none of the stories are connected in any meaningful way, nor do they have much of a message. Ultimately, the viewer leaves feeling no more educated, insightful, or entertained than when he started.
Fast Food Nation is a lazy movie, so overwhelmed with complex issues that it doesn’t even bother trying to tackle them.