“Fast Food Nation”
Director Richard Linklater
Fox Searchlight Pictures
It may be hard to adapt a novel to film, but what about a book
of non-fiction?
Richard Linklater’s “Fast Food Nation” takes
on Eric Schlosser’s 2001 bestselling work of the same title,
but doesn’t quite live up to its literary forerunner.
Like Schlosser’s book, the film seeks to expose the
unsanitary and deceptive underbelly of fast food in the United
States. With a complex plot intertwining the stories of
big-industry fast food executives, Mexican immigrants working in
slaughterhouses, and high school and college-aged students, the
film attempts to encompass every sector of American society
affected by fast food.
Despite this multilensed approach to storytelling, the
characterization of various people is biased and unrealistic to the
point of parody. For example, Bobby Cannavale’s portrayal of
a slaughterhouse manager is so villainous that he is hard to
believe.
Similarly, Luis Guzmán’s portrayal of a coyote
““ someone who brings Mexican immigrants across the American
border for profit ““ is extremely unlikely. The film fails to
reveal the evil that is often associated with men of his
profession; some coyotes reportedly beat or rape their clients.
Despite biased characterization, the film’s comic relief
is (sadly) funny because it vividly portrays some unsanitary
conditions in the fast food industry. Greg Kinnear plays a
fast-food executive who discovers that there are cow feces in the
meat patties that his company serves across the nation. Ashley
Johnson plays a high school student working in a chain restaurant
who realizes the corruption and unsuccessfully tries to free some
cows in a feed lot near Los Angeles.
Overall, the film suffers from a lack of cohesiveness; Linklater
simply tries to tell too many stories at once. Although they are
indeed intertwined, they are not gracefully strung together.
Schlosser cowrote the screenplay with Linklater, but the film
still loses much of its factual basis. If you are looking for
facts, read the book.