Butler's Cinema Scene

“HOT FLASH HAVOC” My rating: C  (Opening May 25 at the Screenland Crossroads)

87 minutes | No MPAA rating

“Hot Flash Havoc” is about an important health issue. But don’t mistake it for entertainment.

This doc from direcdtor Marc Bennett and writer Marnie Inskip delivers just about all the information you could want about “the change.” But for most of its running time it feels more like a public health lecture.

It starts out trying to soften us up with man-in-the-street interviews with woman and the men who love them.

One woman calls menopause “ one of the biggest tests a woman goes through to find out how positivie she is in life.”

Another notes that nobody likes the onset of menopause, but “if  you don’t reach it, you’ve really got troubles” (i.e. , you’re dead).

Opines another subject: “If this were happening to males, They’d fix it.”

“This” is theusual litany ofcomplaints: mood swings, hot flashes, memory loss, decreased sex drive.

The main thrust of “Hot Flash Havoc” is to undo the harm done by a deeply flawed study which a few years ago suggested that the hormone therapy used to treat the symptoms of menopause led to heart disease.

Through the testimony of a score of medical experts, the film argues that getting off hormones was precisely what should not have happened.

There’s valuable information here. But while director Bennett employs animation, bouncy music and fast-cut editing in an effort to rev up the proceedings, “Hot Flash Havoc” is very slow going.

| Robert W. Butler