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Sunday 7 September 2008

Spot the point

Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?
12A, Nationwide

There are a few enlightening moments — the Orthodox Jews who round on him in Tel Aviv; the woman who argues that the Muslim world hates Osama as much as anyone ‘because he legitimised a US presence in the Middle East’. But Spurlock is no Michael Moore, lacking his talent not just for dramatic structure, but also for mockery. He is a spineless farceur, as well as a poor detective. OK, the film isn’t really about finding Osama, but it isn’t about anything else, either.

Worst of all, though, are the continual updates on Mrs S. via his nightly phone calls — ‘I love you too, honey’ — as well as shots of Mrs S. growing bigger by the minute while hoping Mr S. will be back in time. This seems almost shockingly narcissistic, as if they are the first couple ever to have a baby. I guess that if you write and direct your own films there is no one to shake you and say, ‘Listen, people have been having babies for 600 million years. There is nothing special about it. Birds do it, bees do it, and even educated fleas do it!’ They should have simply got over themselves.

Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? is like a Spot lift-the-flap book. Is Osama behind the sofa? No. Is Osama under the bed? No. Is Osama in the wardrobe? No. And just what is the point of books of this kind if Spot isn’t under any of the flaps? Spurlock never finds Osama (I think you’d have heard if he had; so I’m not spoiling anything) and even turns back at a border in Pakistan which warns foreigners not to go any further because ‘it’s not going to change things for my kid’. Spurlock’s conclusion, at the end, is only that ‘there are a lot more people out there like us than there are like him’. Well, yes, because if there were a lot more people out there like him rather than like us, there wouldn’t be any world left to worry about. And everything has moved on from Osama anyway. Even he may not be the point any more.

More articles from: Deborah Ross | this section

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