'SUPER SIZE ME' | A review Film on fast food's effects gives viewers something to chew on

The movie never answers the question of who's responsible for obesity.
By MOIRA MACDONALD
SEATTLE TIMES
"Where does personal responsibility stop and corporate responsibility start?" asks filmmaker Morgan Spurlock at the start of his entertaining documentary "Super Size Me," about the fast-food industry's role in the obesity epidemic. It's a good question, but it's an unfortunate peg on which to hang the film -- as, after a lively 96 minutes in which Spurlock brings up numerous valid points about fast food, health and society, the question is never really answered.
Spurlock, as the world now knows, went on a McDiet last year -- he spent 30 days eating only McDonald's food. The film meticulously documents his journey (rather too meticulously; I could have done without the vomit scene), which begins with high spirits and ends, a month later, with a visibly paler, heavier and less ebullient Spurlock. Doctors confirm that he's gained 25 pounds, his cholesterol has skyrocketed, his liver is being "pickled" and his overall health has taken a disturbing plunge. "My body officially hates me," he tells the camera.
All of this has a fairly high "duh" factor: Is there anyone out there, short of fast-food industry publicists, who really believes that three squares a day of high-fat fried food washed down with soda wouldn't make you sick? So it's too bad that Spurlock's stunt, though fascinating in a train-wreck sort of way, tends to overshadow the far more interesting elements of his film.
Strong personality
Like Michael Moore in "Bowling for Columbine," Spurlock has a terrific, powerful subject in his cross hairs; also like Moore, he centers his film on his own outsize personality. (He's actually a schmoozy charmer; as you watch the film, you can't help but like him, even as your eyebrows go up.) And you might say he bites off more than he can chew. This is a huge topic (no pun intended), and "Super Size Me" in some ways feels like the blueprint for a half-dozen other, more focused documentaries, any of which could be fascinating.
Consider Spurlock's examination of school-lunch programs, which he sees as the root of our nation's obesity problem. (In one telling scene, an earnest school administrator explains how her cafeteria's variety of offerings "teaches kids to make good choices" -- and then we watch the kids, free of any guidance whatsoever, cheerfully loading up on fries and soda pop.) He also too-briefly examines issues of restaurant portion size, food quality, fast-food marketing to children, obesity lawsuits, gastric-bypass surgery, the weight-loss industry and his own fruitless attempt to get McDonald's to comment on the record for his film.
"Super Size Me" is jammed full of content, like those supersize French-fry containers at McD's, and watching it provides plenty of food for thought. (It also inspires way too many food-related metaphors, not to mention a slightly shameful craving for crispy, salty fries.) And while the personal responsibility/corporate responsibility divide remains muddy -- surely Spurlock, or anyone whose health was adversely affected by restaurant food, could simply stop eating it -- this film is well worth seeing, for the important questions it raises, and the many discussions it's sure to inspire.