Film Review: Time To Choose Will Leave Everyone Feeling Nervous
Narrated by Oscar Isaac and directed by Charles Ferguson, Time To Choose is a documentary that confronts humanity over its delayed response to Global Climate Change (GCC). While many are growing more knowledgeable and accepting over GCC as an actual threat to humanity, the film remarks on the sense of urgency this situation contains now. The time to convince has long past, and now it is time to choose.
The films scopes the globe through riveting images on what the world is, should be, and is painfully becoming. Divided into three sections, coal and electricity, oil and gas, and land and food, Ferguson places a mirror before humanity that is not an easy reflection. As you watch once beautiful mountains and oceans, be mined, drilled, and ravaged through man-made decisions, you want to cringe. “What are we doing to ourselves?” is a question you might ask yourself repeatedly throughout the film. Ferguson brilliantly juxtaposes the beauty of nature and the ugliness of mankind’s penchant to destroy it and thus itself. Oddly enough, it is Oscar Isaac’s cool, succulent voice that drives the fear of this film.
The calmness of Isaac’s voice as he describes the downfall of our planet and humanity, itself, is creepy in its tranquility. Isaac has a fantastic narrative voice that comes off like as celestial being warning of a potential hell. Rightfully, Time To Choose will leave you terrified and running towards every recycle bin in sight. The documentary aims to give an apocalyptic feel to Global Climate Change, which is, technically, the truth. Most do not understand that we are not “going green” to save the earth but the human species. Whether the earth becomes a water-world or a dry wasteland, does not matter to her sustainability, but certainly matters to our own. By not approaching the severity of Global Climate Change, humanity is literally placing itself in a position where food, water, and a livable environment will be null possibilities. Hence, Ferguson is the closest I have seen, in terms of the Climate Change discussion, to drive how fatal this situation is to humanity. Each scene, especially in the beginning, can feel like humanity is inching itself over a cliff. Yet, Ferguson still has a beacon of hope.
There is no hiding that Ferguson BELIEVES in renewable energy. Solar and wind power, to him, are like gifts from God still left over to turn back our earth into Heaven. Again, he uses vivid imagery to push that renewable energy is a refreshing option. Nature has its own offers in maintaining itself, which mankind should follow. Ferguson’s hopeful emphasis on renewable energy slightly quells the doomsday feel of the film. I elaborate that the film will leave you terrified. Yet, that is not a necessarily bad thing.
The frustration with Global Climate Change as humanity’s future death is, in part, because it is not seen as a present reality. The film tries to reveal it as a present issue through fear. Yet, I have to wonder how well that initiative will work. People have the tendency to easily give up if the road ahead seems hard, and Ferguson’s film is an emphasis on such hardship. Although we still have time to turn back the “fatal clock”, after seeing how much damage mankind is doing unto itself, you might feel like the Time To Choose is gone. Can we really become better in time? Ferguson has hope, but some viewers might leave the film dubious.
Whether you believe like, Ferguson, that humanity still has the choice to be better or not, you cannot deny that the film excellently displays the “dire straits” humanity is in. Moreover, through it wondrous images of countries, cultures, and the world in general, you feel interconnected with the earth. She becomes a friend that you want to save and, in doing so, save yourself. Of all the films released trying to push Global Climate Change to the forefront, this one is certainly a top choice.
Time To Choose Comes Out Theatrically on June 3. It is 97 minutes long.
