Documentary. Not rated. 1 hour, 32 minutes. At the Chez Artiste.
Late in “How to Live Forever,” director Mark Wexler, who appears on camera throughout, thinks about going to Iceland, which has a high life-expectancy rate. But then he thinks better of it, not wanting to subject himself to yet another interview with a 100-year-old, who will tell him some vague and probably contradictory recipe for longevity.
Wexler gets tired of his own movie near the end of it. The viewer will get tired in 15 minutes.
According to Wexler’s own narration, this documentary came as the result of a midlife crisis, or whatever crisis it is that people get in their early 50s. Framed as a journey of discovery, one man’s effort to feel better about mortality, the film takes him to mortician conventions and old-age homes and finds him interviewing extremely old people about their secrets.
If anything, it seems that longevity is a consequence of being carefree, though it might also be the reverse: People who are 100 don’t seem to worry about much.
By the end, despite an engaging moment or two, Wexler’s journey and his movie fail. No one ends up feeling any better about anything, not even Wexler — and least of all the viewer.
