Review: ‘Chimpanzee’ Provides Charming Family Entertainment and Way Too Much Narration

For most of its slim 78 minute runtime, Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield&#8216s Chimpanzee focuses on the daily minutiae of a large group of chimpanzees living in the Ivory Coast's Tai Forest &#8211 their eating habits, sleeping patterns, and how they interact on a social level. It's not particularly exciting, but it is interesting and it does serve an important purpose when the film finally gets to the meat of its story &#8211 it serves to lull its audience into a false sense of safety. Centered primarily on a three-year-old chimp named Oscar and his mother Isha, the film certainly benefits from its built-in &#8220awww&#8221 factor, because baby Oscar is both adorable and engaging. Despite the fact that his family unit includes other baby chimps, there's no question as to why Fothergill and Linfield trained their film on young Oscar, even before we get to the heart of the s (Read More)

Film School Rejects