Film Review: LIFE IN A DAY (2011)

Director: Kevin Macdonald
Collaborating Director: Natalia Andreadis
Co-Directors: Lisa Cottrell-Bentley, Jane Haubrich, Soma Helmi, Frederic Lumiere, Joseph Michael & Joaquin Montalvan
Executive Producers: Ridley Scott & Tony Scott
Running time: 95 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12A

Genre: Documentary/Drama
UK Release date: 17^th June 2011

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 6^th November 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I remember the beginnings of this idea being released into the world. We, the world in general, were asked to film something, anything, on 24^th July 2010 and post it to a special YouTube page. 80,000 clips and films were submitted, totalling 4,500 hours of footage from 192 countries. It fell to director Kevin Macdonald and his team to whittle this down into a 90 minute film. And boy what a film! There are very few documentaries I’ve seen that are better than this. Such a diversity of cultures, subjects and people, it really opened my eyes.

The format basically follows the time arc of the day, from the early hours of the morning right through to the following midnight. There were pieces from a vast array of peoples from all around the globe, some quite touching, some disturbing and some just plain silly. I must warn you that there are one or two scenes that some may find upsetting and there is a little swearing. Quite a variation in picture quality didn’t really detract from what is quite a stunning piece of work. It’s all held together with a beautiful musical soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams and Matthew Herbert.

I really enjoyed watching the diversity on show here and I had to keep reminding myself that all these things happened on the same day. For me, the star of the show was the Korean guy who was cycling around the world. He just wanted to reunite North and South Korea and he had such optimism. It’s beautifully put together with various themes running through it. Never boring, no voice-over, just the people of the world telling their own stories… Highly Recommended.

My score: 8.9/10

IMDb Score: 8.1/10 (based on 1,675 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1687247/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
None available.

LINKS:
Official Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Life-In-A-Day-UK-Official/221537331206023?sk=app_106878476015645
Official Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/LifeInADayUK
Official Site: http://movies.nationalgeographic.com/movies/life-in-a-day/
YouTube Channel (You can watch the entire thing here): http://www.youtube.com/user/lifeinaday
Trailer: