Donor Unknown: firing blanks ...

There are some great documentary films; over the past few years in fact, documentary is the area from which some of the most interesting cinema has come.  The key to a good documentary is engagement of audience interest - a sense that we are learning something, or at least that we are entertained; there must be an impression that, for one reason or another we need to see it. Donor Unknown, a new film from Jerry Rothwell (a man not unfamiliar with success in the field), is sadly not one such documentary.  The film follows the story of JoEllen Marsh, product of IVF, who discovers she has siblings and with them, finally meets her biological father.

I know what you're thinking, not unlike The Kids Are Alright, right?  Wrong. The documentary fails on various counts. Firstly, it is all over the place; Rothwell seems unsure what it is he is actually trying to do with the piece: educate, entertain, document, produce a public service warning, or make a sort of family drama - and so he does it all!  Telling the story from all points of view at once does not help: we are introduced to the children, the parents and the mystery father, and follow them simultaneously on their journey towards a very underwhelming meeting.  While this sort of editing might be appropriate in a more cinematic piece where you are building tension, in a documentary the result is just irritation.

How about engaging the audience's interest?  With all respect to these people, the film does little to raise any concern for anybody involved or interest in their story.  JoEllen seems nice enough, but it is very hard to be interested in anything she is telling us because it is all so predictable. Nothing exciting really happens; we meet her siblings, who are all equally as normal and uninspiring characters, and we listen to them go on about how they are shocked by how similar they are (this is a surprise?) and how meeting their biological father could be interesting.  (Do we really need a half hour of film for this?) Then there is the titular donor, Jeffrey Harrison, a man whose past involves modeling, music, acting, philosophy and dancing, and who is nowadays glad to be a free spirit, living in a mobile home on Venice Beach with his dogs and birds, cooking up conspiracy theories. I confess that for a little while he gives the film a bit of spark, simply due being such a colorful man, but that only lasts so long. In the end our impression of him is similar to that of his children when they read about him - that he is a bit weird and a tad annoying. Eventually they all meet, everyone is pretty underwhelmed, and Jeffrey is left seeming a little sad and out of his element, and that's the end.

As to the call for education, it is frustrating to recognize that, if done differently this subject could hold our interest. Sadly, from the opening moments (featuring a cryobank representative proclaiming they could populate the entire world with a big smile on his face, as though this is definitely a good thing) to the closing, deeply philosophical musing that it is a great time to be alive, we never really learn anything we did not already know about sperm donation. That is, I suppose, beyond the mildly interesting, and admittedly frightening fact that the amount of children produced from one sperm donor is not monitored. The problem is that we could just as easily read this information online if we chose, and it would be just as interesting as this film.  Anybody with a rather cynical view of the world may get a kick from the segment focused on the client's shallow desire and ability to pick and choose physical features.  People prefer taller men who look like Paul Walker, we learn.  Handy information.

In conclusion, somebody interested in the science of the matter will be disappointed, somebody interested in the family drama element will be left cold, and anybody interested in cinema will be flat-out bored.  Donor Unknown lacks the bite of Supersize Me, the sense of importance of Bowling For Columbine, or the sharp direction of Man On Wire and just leaves you wondering how eighty minutes can feel so long.

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