[ISLAND OF LEMURS: MADAGASCAR opens in Cleveland on Friday April 4th exclusively at the Great Lakes Science Center Omnimax.]
Review by Ben Lybarger
When most people get up for work
tomorrow morning, very few of them will have as daunting and laudable
a task as Dr. Patricia Wright, who has taken on the goal of saving an
almost hopelessly endangered species from extinction. Fortunately for
the tenor of this film inspired by her work, the former social worker
turned primatologist understands very well the complicated dynamics
involved when the island's limited resources are split between its
human and non-human families. With sympathies carefully aimed in both
directions, the tone of this info-taining cavalcade of cuteness never
culminates in occidental finger-wagging despite the dangers facing
the Greater Bamboo lemur - object of this New York ex-pat's lifelong
fascination - as well as all the other lemurs found on this island
and nowhere else in the world. These matriarchal mammals suffer
severe habitat loss from slash-and-burn agriculture, in addition to
numerous other hazards from the local people as they themselves
struggle to make ends meet. While the lemurs retain the spotlight
throughout the film, director David Douglas deftly avoids the
temptation to cast a heavy eye across the globe while simultaneously
also managing to wring a drop of hope from the dire situation.
