Life in a Day

Don’t cringe at the notion that YouTube has gotten into the business of assisting with feature film production.

At least don’t shutter when the result is Life in a Day, an ambitious bit of cinematic experimentation that assembles submitted videos from around the world into a kaleidoscopic portrait of one random day on Earth.

The idea attracted more than 4,500 hours’ worth of footage from 192 countries, with each of the entries filmed on July 24, 2010. It was up to director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) and editor Joe Walker to whittle the footage down to feature length, add the music of composer Matthew Herbert, and establish some sort of engaging rhythm.

The result is compelling enough, allowing audiences a glimpse into various places and cultures, and lives that range from the unusual to the mundane. Naturally, the subject matter runs the gamut. There are montages of everything from urination to preparing breakfast to religious beliefs. Some of the submissions feel homemade and amateurish, while others are more polished, such as a mini-documentary on a Korean man who is cycling around the world.

The tone is mostly fun and lighthearted, with the comic moments far outnumbering the somber or shocking ones (including the graphic on-screen slaughter of a cow). Most are forgettable snippets, but there are a few highlights, including a cameraman who faints while his wife gives birth, and a woman who becomes agitated because her husband won’t stop quoting Walt Whitman long enough to care for their children. Some real creativity is on display, not to mention some beautiful imagery.

There’s an exhilarating spontaneity to the material that is broken only during scattered segments in which the filmmakers show their subjects answering simple, specific questions — What’s in your pocket? What do you love?

But that’s a minor quibble. Part of the fascination of Life in a Day, of course, is the novelty. Nothing like this would have been possible even a decade ago, and it all has a very contemporary, all-inclusive vibe that reflects an age where it seems everyone wants to flirt with fame or leave their mark.

The result effectively achieves the mission, whether it’s to create a video time capsule for future generations or simply to offer viewers today a broad anthropological look at our planet.

Rated PG-13, 95 minutes.