Consumed (2015) (aka: A Mother's Fear) Zoe Lister-Jones, Victor Garber, Beth Grant, Kunal Nayyar, Anthony Edwards, Griffin Dunne, Danny Glover Movie Review

Consumed (2015)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Zoe Lister-Jones in Consumed (2015) (aka: A Mother's Fear)

Consuming Conspiracy

Single mum Sophie (Zoe Lister-Jones) becomes concerned when her son Garrett (Nick Wilkin) fall ill with what a doctor says is just a case of the flu but clearly is more when he not only breaks out in an all over the body rash but ends up in hospital. Convinced that maybe it is something they are which might be responsible Sophie's research leads her to believe that GM foods are the cause of not only her son's health woes but also her own increasing irrational behaviour. Determined to clean up what they eat Sophie pays local organic farmer Hal (Danny Glover) a visit but he is concerned that Sophie may work for a company, Clonestra, which has been harassing him for a while to use their genetically modified seed. As Sophie keeps on digging in to things she discovers that Clonestra is funding research as the school where her mother Kristin (Beth Grant) works. Although she finds herself stone walled by the bosses she meets a disgraced former scientist, Peter (Griffin Dunne), willing to help as he believes the same as she does.

First things first and "Consumed", or "A Mother's Fear" as it was called when I came across, does not work as a movie. The whole thing doesn't really gel and ends up incredibly bity which makes it the sort of production which pulls you in only to lose you and then to keep on doing this over and over again. The worse thing is that the elements which have been put in to the movie such as the coincidence that there is research going on at the place where Sophie's mum works ends up not only coming across a little far fetched but it also weakens what the point of "Consumed" is.

Danny Glover in Consumed (2015) (aka: A Mother's Fear)

But secondly whilst "Consumed" struggles as a movie it is still an interesting and highlights various points. I won't go in to all of them and to be honest I don't know how much truth there is behind everything that is said in this movie but what it does is make you think. As such you get to thinking about how not only is it hard not to buy anything which doesn't contain some sort of genetically modified product but also how with so much chemical product is used in modern farming that even those who don't use it are effected because of it ending up in water systems. Unfortunately there is a part of this factual side which wants to try and be a bit sensational to make this movie works as entertainment and in doing so it makes some of the points seem far fetched such as when one organic farmer loses his contract as a supplier because some how GM seed made it on to his land and in doing so making him struggle with his own health effected by the stress.

There is one other thing which is kind of impressive about "Consumed" and that is the number of famous actors who appear in this movie. Now unfortunately whilst it adds something to the movie it has to be said that the writing of the characters beyond that of Sophie is quite slim such as Griffin Dunne's disgraced scientist. It adds to why "Consumed" whilst interesting ends up struggling as entertainment.

What this all boils down to is that the best I can say about "Consumed" is that it is thought provoking and that is clearly its strength. But watched because you want to be entertained I fear you are likely going to be disappointed because it is bity and fails to really flow.


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