Fast Food Nation, the brilliant 2001 expos of the American fast food industry by journalist Eric Schlosser, has now been turned into a major motion picture--and the results are interesting, if somewhat disappointing. Rather than making a straightforward documentary, like the extraordinary number of political docs released in recent years, Schlosser and director Richard Linklater (Slackers, Waking Life) have taken an interesting gamble by making a fictional drama based on the factual themes of the original book.

It's difficult to say whether the gamble will pay off, since the resulting movie is unfortunately lacking as a piece of cinema--the characters are dreadfully one-dimensional, and much of the dialogue amounts to agitprop flimsily disguised as human drama. If the movie version of Fast Food Nation succeeds as a media event in bringing awareness of "the dark side of the All-American meal" to a mainstream American audience, then Schlosser's original muckraking motive as the book's author will be well served. (And as far as ubiquitous media-hyped catchphrases go, I'd love to see "There's shit in the meat" become 2007's version of "Show me the money.") But given the brilliance of Schlosser's original book, it's a shame the film has turned out so relatively trite.

Folks unfamiliar with the book are highly advised to put it near the top of their reading lists: It exhaustively details many of the fast food industry's ill effects not just on the way America--and hence much of the rest of the world we dominate culturally and economically--eats, but also on global labor standards, the environment, and once-vibrant local communities worldwide. Most importantly, Schlosser's prose is uncommonly exquisite, thus making this vitally important book an absolute delight--rather than dull activist drudgery--to read. Ultimately, the film merely hints at the themes that Schlosser's book makes explicit. See it if you want to promote its box-office returns, but don't go expecting Seven Samurai, much less Fahrenheit 9/11.

Meantime, word is that Schlosser's currently working on a book about the American prison system--an equally contentious topic that Schlosser will surely do justice. Watch for it.