Waterlife

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      A documentary by Kevin McMahon. Rated G. Opens Friday, July 17, at the Cinemark Tinseltown

      Is there anything sexier than water? No, not just in the Blue Lagoon, shampoo-ad sense of the stuff, but as the bath in which all life begins and, if lucky, flourishes.


      Watch the trailer for Waterlife.

      Writer-director Kevin McMahon, who skillfully poeticized Niagara in The Falls, here widens his view to the Great Lakes, North America’s swimming pool, washbasin, and—sad to say it—broken-down toilet. As anyone but paid-off politicians is now beginning to understand, our waterways have become transit camps for a stupefying collection of PCBs, fecal bacteria, stray pharmaceuticals, and estrogen-simulating plastics.

      The fact that we are not already walking around with three eyes and five breasts is, I suppose, some consolation in the face of losing our once-pristine lakes and rivers. And the Toronto-based director is highly skilled at conveying the almost mystical, at the very least sentimental, relationship we have with some of the largest freshwater bodies in the world.

      With the aid of snazzy computer animation, rockin’ music (from Kurt Swinghammer and others), Gord Downie’s hip narration, and dazzling cinematography—lots of fisheye lens, naturally—McMahon makes the bad news palatable, at least while you’re still watching Waterlife. Later, there’ll be time to think about the calculated deceit of large corporations working in concert with lobbyists put in charge of the regulatory agencies paid to watch them. You’ll mourn the lack of native fish wiped out by species introduced to lakes Erie and Huron, by accident or careless design. And feel free to ponder how the female birth rate has mysteriously doubled in First Nations reserves along the shores of Lake Michigan. Sexy, eh?

      Okay, this is not the movie one should use to wash down the nasty facts of Food, Inc. A stiff drink might be better. And believe me, booze is the least of our problems.

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