Review of Life in a Day (2011) by Hoops2448 — 07 Nov 2011

Life In A Day has so many profound moments but overall it never really feels like a coherent piece of film. I know its hard with so many different voices, videos and ideas to work with to make everything come together but Life poses 3 major questions but then fails to go into enough detail to justify asking them. Despite the fact the choice of end video is incredibly thought provoking and emotional you end life in a day kind of empty. The questions asked are valid ones but the answers are so incredibly different that there can be no real comparison which is what a film like this should be doing. However it did do something amazing in trying to show a day in the life of the planet and the people who live on it. Its something that hasn't been tried before and its commendable, even inspiring, but the fact it only shows glimpses further emphasises the emptiness of the endeavour. I could argue that the film feels incredibly fake at times but the whole film is people taping themselves and making themselves look more interesting. Its the few videos where people have decided to be completely honest with the camera that provide the most engrossing moments of the film, the moments I would have liked to see more of because they forced you to think, forced you to evaluate the lives you are seeing and your own. The fact that these clever, heartfelt and honest moments are broken up by montages of day to day activities (although edited brilliantly) causes the film to lose focus and ultimately lose the viewer.

The novelty keeps the film going and moments like a wife talking to her husband via skype, a son visiting his father for the first time in a while and the ending monologue by a young lonely woman are worth watching but the film just doesn't cut it due to a clear lack of focus.