Morgan, Come Home
Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?
Jeremy Chilnick and Morgan Spurlock
Say your wife is pregnant with your first child, and you're worried about the baby's safety. Do you: A) stay in New York and tend to your wife or B) travel to the world's most volatile countries and search for the world's most wanted man? In Morgan Spurlock's new documentary, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?, our intrepid hero decides on the latter. His saintly wife spends her pregnancy alone wondering if Spurlock has been blown up. Nobody watching will entertain for even a second the possibility that he might succeed in his quest, and the over-simplified conclusions he draws ("In the end, it doesn't really matter where Osama is..." / "Most Muslims are just like us. They also want safe kids!") are painful and obvious. Spurlock's wry, game jocularity worked perfectly in Super Size Me (for which he received an Academy Award nomination) because he kept the stakes small, personal, relatable and entertaining.Where in the World...? tries too hard to appeal to a popcorn crowd. The constant din of music, video game graphics and combinations thereof (Bin Laden dancing to "Can't Touch This" and battling a video version of Spurlock), obliterates any sense of gravitas for the subject. Perhaps Spurlock wanted an excuse to play soldier. The ecstatic look on his face when he gets to shoot a rocket launcher says it all. Early on, a shantytown dweller reveals more common sense than Spurlock. When asked for advice on how to raise kids, the man says, "Be good to your wife."
- Sarah Skilton
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