'Freakonomics' tries to tackle too much in too little time

Baby names, sumo wrestlers, crack prices and high-school grades all collide in "Freakonomics," with mixed results.

Several acclaimed documentarians take on various sections of the New York Times best-seller that forced readers to reconsider how the world works by looking at it from new perspectives. University of Chicago economics professor Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner, who wrote "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything," appear throughout to explain their theories and bounce off each other with the well-honed patter of a veteran comedy team.

The film as a whole, though, isn't as reliable.

It starts out on a lively note with "Super Size Me" director Morgan Spurlock considering whether your name dictates your destiny. He talks to everyone from experts on race to strippers to average men and women on the street. One researcher found that by sending out copies of the same resume - but saying the job applicant's name was Greg on some and Tyrone on others - he got vastly different responses. Spurlock's segment is brisk, funny and enlightening, as is typical of his work.

Next comes Alex Gibney's investigative segment on cheating in sumo wrestling, and how the practice is contradictory to the sport's pure, spiritual roots. Gibney reveals match-fixing and suspicious deaths. The topics of corruption and deception couldn't be more relevant, especially from the director of "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room." His segment could have been a suspenseful look at a world most of us know nothing about; instead, it's surprisingly dry and feels like a chore to slog through.

Eugene Jarecki, director of the sobering "Why We Fight," is up next with the section that will prompt the most debate: a look at whether abortion is a factor in dropping crime rates. Jarecki traces the book's theory that crime in America decreased sharply in the 1990s for several reasons, including that babies who would have been born unwanted and doomed to a life of crime simply don't exist. These kids would have been born in the mid-1970s, but weren't because of the Supreme Court's 1973 upholding of Roe v. Wade. A bold idea, for sure, and one that needed to be fleshed out in more time than "Freakonomics" provides.

Finally, "Jesus Camp" directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing visit a struggling Chicago high school to find out whether bribing students inspires them to get better grades. Under an experiment, students receive $50 for every grade they earn above a C, with a chance to win a $500 lottery and a ride home in a Hummer limousine. Grady and Ewing vividly introduce us to two ninth-graders with starkly contrasting approaches to this offer.

That last segment is one of the film's high points, but the problem is that any of these topics could have been expanded into its own film and been more fully engaging.

In between, Seth Gordon (director of the amusing video-game documentary "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters") weaves transitional segments on related topics, such as whether your real-estate agent really has your best interest at heart (he doesn't), or whether playing Mozart for your baby in the womb will make a difference (it won't).

All eye-opening stuff - and there's simultaneously a lot of it and not enough.

Produced by Dan O'Meara, Chad Troutwine, written and directed by Heidi Ewing, Alex Gibney, Seth Gordon, Rachel Grady, Eugene Jarecki, Morgan Spurlock, music by Paul Brill, Michael Furjanic, Human, Peter Nashel, Michael Wandmacher, a Magnolia Pictures release.