Calling Chimpanzee a documentary is only half right, for this sometimes contrived narrative seems so fabricated as almost to call into question the authenticity of the whole production. Three-year old chimp Oscar loses mom; alpha male Freddy adopts him. That seems fine until the battles between rival groups for the nut field guarded by his mom's tribe appear narratively convenient and cunningly edited.
But I must remember this production is sanctioned by Chimp champion Jane Goodall, so anything contrived is probably minimal. Yet that photography and chimp-intimate moments make it a delight.
Chimpanzee is the only G rated film I have seen recently, and deservedly so. Although the fights and the deaths are undoubtedly accurate in the Tai Forest of the Ivory Coast, the cutaway shots that brook no blood give the film a surreal cast, as if the story were fashioned by a child who could not fathom violence. Moreover, it is known that females will eat untethered little-uns; such observations do not pass the relaxed lips of Tool Time's narrator, Tim Allen. Really, Jungle book is more terrifying.
But I digress. The photography of the primates in their natural habitat is downright gorgeous, and the use of slow motion is more appropriate and restrained than any I have seen in years. One time-lapsed shot of rain drops falling on puffballs is not only exquisite but also so artful as to seem gratuitous, inserted for beauty's sake, not the story (although a figurative interpretation could be devised, but, hey, this is a documentary, not an art film).
The scenes running with the credits show some of the apparatus, including high-strung cable with remote camera, and time is spent to verify the plot line of the bonding alpha and Oscar.
So I'm back again to admiring the photography and grousing about the fabricated-seeming story. The narration is sometimes goofy and the music manipulative.
Just take the kids and enjoy; they will not be as whiny as I.
