Review: Encounters At The End Of The World

"Encounters At The End Of The World" might just be the cinematic equivalent of exchanging stories in a bar. One guy tells a tale, and then another to up the ante on him, and all the while, the stories range from touching to hilarious, sometimes both, and sometimes just heavy. The difference, however, is that where exaggerations are likely to take place when stories are being told, "Encounters" captures them on camera. It's a stunning illustration of the idea that the truth is often far stranger than fiction.

Documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog (best known for "Grizzly Man," where he filmed a man who lived amongst grizzly bears and befriended them, until one day they got hungry and killed him) takes his examination of those individuals who live their passion to Antarctica, to film everybody from scientists seeking a deeper understanding of new life to working men with a lifelong case of wanderlust. Along the way, Herzog makes some conclusions about where the world is headed, if even the last utopia of the world (as he views it) is slowly falling apart.

The film is lushly shot, though Herzog seems to have fallen so deeply in love with the vistas of Antarctica that he tends to labor upon shots for minutes at a time. This is also the film's biggest handicap, because for as gorgeous as it looks, it eventually gets redundant, as though he's continually trying to tell us how beautiful the place is even as he's already shown us. The film's best scenes are those that center around the people. As Herzog talks to a penguin researcher, his overhead narration marvels at how the man has become so engrossed in his work that he lacks the ability to converse with humans.

There is another scene during the film when the trainer talks about how penguins will occasionally, for reasons not yet understood, bolt for the mountains, running away from safety and towards certain death. This is another of the overarching themes of the film: following one's muse regardless of the consequences. Many of the men and women Herzog talks to have led wonderous, bizarre lives. One woman relates the story of her three years living on the run with African rebels, and how she was kidnapped and trapped in firefights on numerous occasions. Most of them do manual labor jobs to support themselves, but never do they complain; you get the distinct impression that everybody living in Antarctica wants to be there. After all, if they didn't, from what Herzog implies with this film, they wouldn't last long.

(Note: The film also has quite a statement about global warming, one that I would argue is even more effective than the fact assault of "An Inconvenient Truth." Because of this, I can see this film taking the Best Documentary award at the Academy Awards this year.)