“FORKS OVER KNIVES” | Documentary.
PG. 1 hour 36 minutes. At the Chez Artiste.
“Forks Over Knives,” a documentary that advocates a plant-based diet to help eradicate diseases, is a must-see movie that could have used a sharper edge.
In recent times, the debate over what and how we eat has taken on political, almost religious, overtones. (Full disclosure here: I have not eaten meat in more than 20 years.) So a film that questions the wisdom of a meat-based diet was bound to be provocative, right?
Somehow, it’s not. But this is not to say, by any means, that the film is boring or not worthwhile. It tackles — or should we say, delicately prods — a long-standing elephant in the room: Eating meat is killing us, and our government is sanctioning it.
Employing a gentle, almost folksy tone, writer-director Lee Fulkerson focuses on the research of two well-spoken doctors, who found that a diet of plant-based food and grains can both prevent and reverse such ailments as heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and various cancers.
There is nothing inherently wrong with that storytelling approach, but the film at times plays like an infomercial, albeit a well-done infomercial, extolling a plant-based diet.
For 96 minutes, “Forks Over Knives” scrupulously avoids words like “vegetarian” or “vegan,” perhaps out of fear of alienating those who prefer a pile of pork ribs to go with their green beans.
But sometimes, to make a statement and provoke a debate, knives work better than forks.
