'11th Hour' has good intentions

THE 11TH HOUR — ** 1/2 — Documentary feature about global environment; narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio; rated PG (violence)

"The 11th Hour" has the best of intentions as a documentary with a message about how continuing ecological and environmental damage to the Earth's ecosystem may threaten life as we know it.

But the film almost overwhelms the audience with information, throwing out so many facts and figures, and so much footage, that it's all hard to process.

Also, despite offering some small glimpses of hope at the end with information on organized pro-environmental efforts around the world, this is pretty bleak, depressing stuff.

And, strangely, narrator Leonardo DiCaprio is not nearly as compelling a presence here as former presidential candidate Al Gore in the Oscar-winning "An Inconvenient Truth," a film that imparted much of the same information more succinctly and much less stridently.

DiCaprio also co-wrote and produced "The 11th Hour," which examines current global-warming theories and tries to connect them with evidence of recent ecological disasters to paint a doom-and-gloom picture of our future.

Filmmakers Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen interviewed more than 50 "experts," ranging from scientist Stephen Hawking to former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev to "sustainable-design" proponent William McDonough.

The point that most, if not all of them, make is that mankind's unthinking actions are endangering most of Earth's life forms — especially mankind itself.

Unfortunately, much of the film consists of talking-head interviews, with DiCaprio or some sort of newsreel footage occasionally breaking up the tedium.

And despite its apparent, family-friendly PG rating, there is some potentially upsetting material here, including a brief clip showing the clubbing of a seal.

"The 11th Hour" is rated PG for some disturbing violent imagery (including newsreel war footage and the aforementioned animal cruelty). Running time: 95 minutes.

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com