Colin Beaven may have parlayed his 15 minutes of fame into a year, a book and a movie, but "No Impact Man" lives up to its title perfectly, as far as I'm concerned, though he's talking about living with no environmental impact and I'm talking about living to provide interest, or entertainment, or even enjoyment.
Beaven's desire to live in a New York apartment without television or toilet paper-to name a couple of things that begin with the letter "t"-looks like a publicity stunt and an opportunity to cash in, rather like Julie Powell with Julia Child. He may be serious about living the natural life, over the objections of his wife, Michele Conlin, who sees this all as foolishness and a great deal of inconvenience for her and their two-year-old daughter, Isabella.
Walking or bicycling to work may be fine, but breeding worms to eat garbage in Manhattan is another story. Living within the environment is a good thing, too, but unless more people than the Beavens family get into it, we're in great difficulty. Still, , if every family did a little bit in that regard, we'd all be a lot better off but we don't need Beaven to train us.
The movie, directed by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein, with Schein providing excellent camera work, is fitfully interesting, but not enough. As Beavens' interest in and enthusiasm for the project are wearing down, Colin's perks up, but the movie fails to create sufficient impact or interest.
At the Plaza Frontenac
–Joe