He’s the king of the super bowls
Once you get beyond the inescapable potty jokes, Lily Zepeda’s “Mr. Toilet: The World’s #2 Man,” turns out to be a compassionate and inspiring portrait of tireless world sanitation crusader Jack Sim.
A true character, the Singapore-based Sim founded the WTO — the World Toilet Organization, dedicated to bringing proper sanitation to those who need it most, particularly rural India, where Prime Minister Modi enlists his help in solving the country’s longstanding open defecation practice.
Formerly a successful businessman with a talent for eye-catching marketing (who knew that 007 flipped in both directions spells LOO?), the 62-year-old first plunged himself into the privy cause in 2001.
Inevitably, he encounters pushback by those resentful over a foreigner instructing them how to go about their business as well as by his frustrated board of directors who are constantly thwarted in their efforts to get their ever-riffing boss to focus his energies.
And while his own family, including his supportive wife and four children, Faith, Truth, Worth and Earth, have come to terms with his unavailability for numerous family milestones, his absences have taken their toll.
Enhanced by playful animations, this nicely composed documentary serves as an engagingly honest profile of a driven man and his prodigious movement.
“Mr. Toilet: The World’s #2 Man.” In English, and Hindi, Mandarin and Telugu with English subtitles. Not rated. Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes. Playing: Laemmle’s Monica Film Center, Santa Monica