Entertainment

LOW-MILEAGE CARTER FILM RUNS OUT OF GAS

THERE isn’t enough re vealing material in the tedious documentary “Jimmy Carter Man From Plains” to sustain an 800-word magazine profile, let alone a two-hour film.

“The Silence of the Lambs” director Jonathan Demme followed Carter along on a 2006-2007 tour to promote his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” but utterly failed to illuminate the personality of the winner of such prestigious awards as the Grammy for Best Audiobook Recording and the Nobel Peace Prize. Nor does Demme go into any depth about issues in the West Bank and Gaza.

The best anecdote – it arrives some 90 minutes into the film – is Carter’s revelation that he and Rosalynn read biblical passages to each other every night, often in Spanish, even if they’re in different cities.

Otherwise we learn little about Carter the man except that he still says “nook-yuh-luhr,” shakes hands with citizens (one lady on a plane ignores his outstretched hand) and stays at the Peninsula when he’s in New York. Around the time Demme captures exclusive footage of Carter’s publicist ordering a salad, the film seems to be saying: We’re just a fly on the wall. Take it or leave it.

Snippets of media interviews stemming from the book, which was protested by Zionist groups and hotly defended by Carter (referring to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, he says, “in many ways it’s worse than the treatment of blacks in South Africa [under apartheid]”), offer only glimpses of complex issues.

It’s not even clear what Carter’s stance is. He keeps criticizing the wall between Israel and the West Bank that massively cut back on suicide bombings (“it’s not designed to prevent attacks in Israel – it’s designed to take land”), but near the end of the film it seems he would have no problem with it if it weren’t in Palestinian territory.

A writer claims Carter plagiarized a map. Carter denies it. Who’s right? We don’t know. A professor from Carter’s think tank quits in protest, saying the book is littered with errors. Carter denies it. Who’s right? Demme shrugs.

Demme does catch two or three revealing moments: Carter is stubborn (he refuses to admit any mistakes regarding the Iranian hostages, claming essentially that his only options were nothing or “killing 10 or 20,000 Iranians” in a full-scale attack) and self-contradictory. Carter says that North Korea would have curtailed its nook-yuh-luhr program if only the current president had talked to them, then a moment later says they would have done so if we had given them more technology and fuel.

Subsidize thy enemy? No wonder the guy carried six states in 1980.

Running time: 126 minutes. Rated PG (brief disturbing language). At the Angelika and the Lincoln Plaza.