Everyone who has grabbed a quick bite to eat on the way home from the pub has asked the same question at some point; what exactly am I eating?

It is this question that drives Greg Kinnear's character Don Henderson into the black heart of meat production. Henderson is a marketing executive for Mickey's Fast Food Restaurant. He is the inventor of 'The Big One' the smash hit burger that is setting sales records. He is sent to investigate claims that ‘There is shit in the meat’.

Henderson travels to Colorado. This also happens to be the destination of a host of immigrants from Mexico. Amongst them are Sylvia (Catalina Sandino Moreno), Coco (Ana Claudia Talancon) and Raul (Wilmer Calderrama). Henderson and the Mexicans are all headed for the same place: Uniglobe Meat Packing (UMP).

For the first half of the movie the audience closely follows Henderson. The threads of other stories float around his search. From the staff in the local restaurant, to the meat buyer, their lives around fast food are explored in this multi-handed story.

Then, when Henderson disappears from the story, the true nature of the tale is revealed. Once Greg Kinnear departs, the real leading character takes centre stage. The UMP plant. It begins its life as a beacon of hope for the Mexican immigrants, but as the story progresses its vile reputation is revealed.

With each visit to the plant the gory goings on become closer and closer. The plant looms like Jaws over the story. There is an air of inevitability, as the bloody tales are proved to be fact. The audience knows what will happen as the gory nature of meat production is revealed.

However, the film is not just about burger production. It tackles immigration, the money that Mexicans risk their lives for. The hopes that they have when they arrive that are quickly dashed by the demanding working conditions and in the end utterly crushed by injury.

Not all of the sub-plots are as effective. The story following young Amber (Ashley Johnson), an intelligent girl who dreams of getting out of Cody, Colorado, starts promisingly but suffers from a lack of punch. At a stage in the rest of movie when the harsh realities are at their most blunt Amber's story heads in an increasingly tepid direction.

Richard Linklater's film looks into an area that is often glossed over.
People wonder what is in their burger but tend to ignore how it gets there (except for the vegetarians). The film doesn't feel like it has an anti-meat agenda. More that it is presenting the cold, harsh realities. If there is a message it is more anti the machine and the domination of corporations at the expense of humanity.

The direction is unfussy and un-intrusive. The dry surroundings are given plenty of early camera time to give a sense of isolation that is further enhanced by the white on white of UMP. A lack of humanity makes it difficult to latch on to the characters. Particularly when the character the audience initially associates with is whipped away. The viewer ends up admiring the skill of the story, the morality of the tale and the exposure of the meat industry but does not fall in love with the characters or have their heart strings pulled by events. The overriding feeling towards the characters is one of sympathy, but nothing more powerful.

From the movie's early comedic notes Linklater skilfully spins the film in a harder hitting, thought provoking direction, which ensures that you will probably not go into McDonalds for your après cinema snack.

by Peter Prickett