One of the nice things about living in Los Angeles is there’s always a ready supply of test and advance screenings for upcoming movies.

Last night I was invited to a preview of Fast Food Nation, a film sharing the title of the excellent Eric Schlosser novel. While Schlosser is involved with the project, the film is not a documentary but instead a fictitious story based on the contents of his book. Three separate narratives follow topics from the book; The hazardous conditions facing illegal immigrants exploited by corporations, the small-town teenagers who balance education with a minimum-wage fast-food job, and the secrets behind the public face of the fast food companies.

Unfortunately the result is neither an eye-opening documentary about the fast-food industry, nor a piece of fiction that does justice to the subject matter it attempts to cover.

Companies such as McDonalds are replaced by the fictitious Mickey’s and this departure from reality removes much of the impact caused by the book. Important topics are given only the briefest of mentions, and scenes such as the hospital visit make little sense to those not familiar with the book. At times, the dumbed-down narrative used by the film to attempt to convey a fact is tiresome.

There are some big names in the film. They range from good (Wilmer Valderrama), to ‘interesting’ (Bruce Willis), to poor (Avril Lavigne). Greg Kinnear’s character seemed a little flat, and I felt Luis Guzman would have been better cast as the plant supervisor.

It’s not that Fast Food Nation is a bad film, it isn’t. It’s more that it’s a missed opportunity, one that will be all the more obvious to people who have read the book.