How to Live Forever (***)

If only Mark Wexler’s documentary lived up to the promise of the title, maybe more people would have seen it. But he doesn’t know, and neither do any of the people he speaks to about the subject, although some think they do. (Wexler helpfully flashes everyone’s age on screen.) One of the better-known names—fitness pioneer Jack LaLanne—has already passed on, which is, as he notes, bad for business. Physical activity is a common theme here. Buster Martin, claimed to be Britain’s oldest worker, entered a marathon. (Martin, like LaLanne, died in 2011.) Eating well is another commonality. The Okinawans, renowned for their longevity, eat lots of nutrient-rich but low-calorie foods, and one of the sharper centenarians says she’s a vegetarian. So, by tradition, are the Seventh-Day Adventists, although Wexler doesn’t mention it when he pays a visit to some of them. The universal element, evident among the old folks and advocated, one way or another, by the experts, is a positive attitude.

The organizing principle of the film is Wexler’s own discomfiture about his own mortality. He’s one of the documentary filmmakers who sticks himself onscreen a lot, like Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock, only without the humor, politics, or even a strong point of view. Frankly, his concerns about aging are no different than most people’s, so the parts of the movie that dwell on them are dull. However, they add up to ten minutes at most. The rest is just a look at attitudes on aging, or extending life, from a lot of perspectives. This includes, but does not emphasize, the scientific. Famed futurist Ray Kruzweil is among those who believe that within a couple of decades scientists will be able to retard or reverse the aging process. It includes the philosophical, like Sherwin Nuland, who believes we have a duty to make way for the next generation. And it includes the nutty, like the founder of Laughter Yoga International (in—guess where—Los Angeles), whose particular brand of anti-aging therapy would, I felt certain, quickly kill me were I forced to engage in it every day. It was annoying enough to watch. I could’ve also done without the man-on-the-street interviews in which Wexler asks folks whether they’d take a pill that would let them live 500 years. This must be the laziest, though common enough, documentary-film technique in existence.

The (really) old folks themselves have the best perspectives. They all have the positive attitude, but they don’t really know why they’ve lived so long. Their good advice is about how to live, not how to live forever. If that inspires you, thank Mr. Wexler for gathering them all in one film.

IMDB link

viewed at Ritz Bourse and reviewed 7/21/11