‘Time to Choose’ puts a happier face on climate debate

Narrated by Oscar Isaac. Directed by Charles Ferguson.

Not rated though topic may be alarming to young children. Check listings for theaters. 1 hour, 40 minutes.

Bottom line: An environmental film that tries to charm naysayers

Which do you prefer: hope or truth?

It’s a tough question when it comes to films about the environment. Do you want alarmist stats about global warming, deforestation, and the lack of clean water in poor regions? Or bromides about how our ingenuity can solve it all?

Al Gore went with hard facts in 2006’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” which tried to convert global-warming deniers. A decade later, America remains divided.

Perhaps that’s why Charles Ferguson’s documentary “Time to Choose” is so upbeat. The film tries to charm naysayers. Its talking heads include industry insiders — solid capitalists who explain the long-term economic benefits of going green.

Ferguson is nobody’s fool: He went for the jugular with “Inside Job,” his Oscar-winning expose of the banking crisis. “Time to Choose” is an intelligent documentary from one of our most effective truth-tellers.

So why do I feel so uneasy about his latest?

Perhaps it’s out of frustration that a man of Ferguson’s ability still has to mollycoddle viewers just to be heard — more than 50 years after the environmental movement found its voice in the early 1960s.