Here is a documentary at once very beautiful and a tad frustrating. Its subject is water, the rapidly depleting resource which both shapes and is shaped by the human race. Traditional interviews with, say, activists or scientists are few and far between here. The film instead cuts to and fro around the world showing people interacting (perhaps exploiting, perhaps just contemplating) water. There are visits to, among others, an abalone farm in China and inexplicable farmland in the California desert. Most of the segments are at least interesting. A few are downright fascinating and alarming. Others, I admit, border on tedious. I found the overall film grating on a certain level because it tends to emphasize aesthetic over content. As epic and riveting as the many sweeping aerial shots are (and they truly are astounding and the definition of cinematic), I believe the film could have dug deeper, at times much deeper, into its peripheral human figures and their stories and the political and social implications of the activities in which they are involved. By always teasing and hopscotching from place to place (from spectacle to spectacle), it winds up a sumptuous and enticing experience, yet also an almost empty one, which is a shame considering the vital subject. These images coupled with expanded context could have resulted in a monumental motion picture.

B-