Consumed (2015)

They made a whole movie about evil genetically modified crops! At least it’s not angry trees. The fact that this movie is about THE CONSPIRACY OF GM made it a little hard for me to take seriously - it would have been fine for switching off my brain, until they got to the end and started urging me to join them in the fight against GM crops. I don’t know. Your movie should stand on its own without needing to actually put messages in at the end. 
It follows, mostly, a mother (Zoe Lister-Jones, who is the highlight of the movie with her gradual unraveling) whose son has started getting sick, and in desperation for an answer she traces the genetically modified food conspiracy. The strongest bits of this movie are when it focuses on the Lister-Jones’ character’s history with mental health problems and how this plays into her struggle to get to the bottom of her son’s ailments while separating real from delusion and paranoia in an increasingly unbelievable spiral. I wish the whole movie had focused on that story, which was exponentially more powerful and really connected to me as a viewer. 
I didn’t mind the elements that felt like general conspiracy movie fare, because I love conspiracy movie crap! It was when they veered into preachiness and imbalance with exposition that it really lost its way, and sadly that happened a lot. With any real world conspiracy things, it feels like a given. Thankfully most of that evened out by the end of the first act, but I definitely struggled with that first act and then again with the excessively earnest ending. I hate earnestness. 
Rating: 3.5/10 - In spite of some real strengths, on the whole Consumed reads as preachy and absolutely forgettable. It’s an easy watch and it develops into a fun ride, but it’s never to be revisited and impossible to invest in.

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