Review: Slick eco-doc ‘Prosperity’ promotes more than it explores

A greener-planet documentary bearing the slickly-produced sheen of a corporate promotional video, “Prosperity” may position itself as a primer for making environmentally-conscious business decisions, but it ultimately feels inescapably self-serving.

That “self” in question would be Pedram Shojai, a self-help author (“The Urban Monk”) and founder of Well.org, a health and wellness website specializing in the integration of commerce and philanthropy that offers a generous array of goods and services at its online store.

Concerned about “our path to destruction,” Shojai plays tour guide as he embarks on a mission to find companies who put Mother Earth’s welfare ahead of sheer, capitalism-driven profit-making.

It turns out he doesn’t have to venture far, save for a trip to a Panama to check in on sustainable cacao harvesting practices, with a succession of American companies, including Whole Foods Market, the Container Store and Guayaki, obligingly sharing their secrets to eco-friendly business practices and healthier workplace environments.

As directed by South Africa-based filmmaker Mark Van Wijk, the production doesn’t stint on flashy video effects and a rousing inspirational score, but the end result comes across less as a bona fide, issue-oriented documentary than a package of company profiles.

“Everything I’m looking at here is advertising,” says Shojai, surrounded by a beckoning sea of flashing electronic signs in the middle of New York City’s Times Square.

Same here.

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‘Prosperity’

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 23 minutes

Playing: Laemmle Music Hall, Beverly Hills

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