Capturing the Friedmans (17-Jan-2003)
Director: Andrew Jarecki Keywords: Documentary, True Crime, Rape, Prison REVIEWS Review by anonymous (posted on 14-Feb-2005) Engrossing documentary
about a seemingly ordinary Long Island family that fell apart in 1988
after the father, Arnold, was caught with gay child pornography, and
subsequently was arrested -- along with his 18-year-old son, Jesse -- for
several counts of child molestation (Arnold taught computers to a
number of preteen boys for a couple of years). The film is less an
account of the events than a Rashomon-like examination of the
subjectivity of personal experience, how one person's truth is another
person's lie. Adding another layer of reality -- or surreality -- are the
home movies that Arnold's oldest son David shot before, during and
after the trial. Because of the subject matter, this can be dark,
troubling stuff, but neither the film nor the family are off-putting.
In fact, all three Friedman boys and their father seem like nice,
good-humored people. The battle over the guilt of the father, and of
the youngest son, takes a back seat to what seems to be a bigger and
far more complicated war between the easy-going men of the family and
the isolated, emotionally cool mother, Elaine. Andrew Jarecki - who, as
a trivial aside, also invented Moviefone -- shows himself to be an adept
documentary filmmaker: his film brings up as many issues about family,
sexuality and the legal system as it confronts, and there are more
twists and turns in the narrative than a Hitchcock picture. In the end
you start wondering just what is the truth behind this horrible crime,
or if there is such a thing as "one" truth to measure. My own feelings
are that Arnold and Jesse Friedman were probably unjustly accused, but
there are enough disturbing details to throw that situation into a more
cosmic sense of guilt and justice. A fascinating family portrait, well
worth seeing.
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