Merchants of Doubt

A movie about manufactured consensus would be a vital public service. But "Merchants of Doubt" isn't quite that movie.

Aside from an eye-opening investigation of useless and harmful flame repellents pumped into furniture, it sticks to climate change without broadening its scope to other examples of corporate spinning, which must be plentiful.

A compelling exposé of professional propagandists, though the movie itself is not agenda-free.

You leave "Merchants of Doubt," as you do any good muckraking documentary, both fascinated and enraged ...

Merchants of Doubt shouldn't be a hard sell. The fact that it is should make you very mad.

Subtle, it's not. But it is effective.

Using a magician's tricks as a metaphor for corporate tactics is clever, and Kenner's found an eloquent talking head in history of science prof Naomi Oreskes, but as in his previous flick, Food, Inc., he keeps hammering away at the same idea.

Based on the 2010 book by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, the film lays out a convincing, follow-the-money trail from the tobacco industry's postwar efforts to prevent (or forestall) government regulation to a profitable lobbying specialty today.

Kenner's sympathies are clear - "Don't let them stack the deck!" the film proclaims - and ultimately Merchants of Doubt does a much better job of making you think than convincing you of what to think.

As a political propaganda film about the dangers of political propaganda, it's difficult to imagine Merchants of Doubt having any effect beyond the cold comfort it might bring the choir.

Director Robert Kenner delivers this rote but stirring documentary about the fake experts and pseudo-scientists that are employed by corporations to spread doubt in the media about scientific facts.

The movie is at its best when profiling the titular merchants.