Who on earth would want to make a large-scale dramatisation of the 1999 anti-World Trade Organisation riots? Stand up Irish actor-turned-director Stuart Townsend, who's recruited a recognisable cast and thrown caution to the wind in order to present the event as mainstream entertainment. The contradictions of the exercise are apparent from the outset, but even if this falls between several stools, it's a worthy effort at making radical politics digestible.
The catastrophic Seattle riots, in which police brutality thwarted a largely peaceful, if stubbornly disruptive, protest, have already been well covered by documentaries like This Is What Democracy Looks Like. This film defines itself by providing "human focus", navigating the sprawling confrontation through a handful of individual mini-dramas. In doing so, it has no choice but to follow the dynamics of a disaster movie. First, we see the various groups preparing. Seasoned activists Martin Henderson, Michelle Rodriguez and Andre Benjamin (who gets all the best lines) are unfurling banners from cranes and organising their protest operation. An anti-AIDS doctor prepares his presentation. Reporter Connie Nielsen is "just looking for a good story". Cop Woody Harrelson attends pregnant wife Charlize Theron's scan (bad omen alert!). Mayor Ray Liotta reassures everyone that nothing can possibly go wrong (even worse omen alert!).
Then we're thrown into the riot, where these various characters cross each others' paths, fatefully of course. Documentary footage and staged reconstructions effectively convey the action, but there's more than a hint of Hollywood cliché to the storylines, and dialogue. Hearts change, inspirational speeches are made, and the politics get pushed into the background.
Mind you, it's in no way boring to watch, and deserves credit simply for existing. To question what such a movie hopes to achieve is not all that different to questioning what the protesters themselves hoped to achieve. As Benjamin puts it at one point: "A week ago, nobody knew what the WTO was. They still don't know what it is, but now at least they know it's bad."