Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
A look at the state of the global environment including visionary and practical solutions for restoring the planet's ecosystems. Featuring ongoing dialogues of experts from all over the world, including former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, former head of the CIA R. James Woolse
The 11th Hour is a competent but fairly conventional environmental documentary of its era, featuring an impressive roster of experts and scientists discussing climate change and ecological collapse. The interview-driven structure with narration by Leonardo DiCaprio follows a well-worn documentary formula established by An Inconvenient Truth and similar films released around the same time, making it feel somewhat derivative within its genre. The cinematography offers solid nature and disaster footage but nothing particularly distinctive. The talking-heads format limits visual ambition. The ending pivots toward solutions and hope, which gives it a slightly more constructive tone than many doom-and-gloom climate docs, but not enough to distinguish it sharply. As a documentary, acting is largely inapplicable beyond the credibility of interview subjects, who range from compelling to dry. Novelty suffers from its proximity to An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and the crowded field of mid-2000s climate documentaries.