Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)

This is a devastating documentary initially conceived as a kind of valentine for the son of the filmmaker's murdered childhood friend. But Ken Kuenne got more than he expected when he started the project as the story gets more terrible and heartbreaking the longer he works on it.

The Bagby family hasn't stopped whirling around my mind since I saw this -- they are truly inspirational. Andrew Bagby, the "father" in the film's title, seemed to be universally loved (evidenced by the record number of times he served as best man to various friends) and his parents are undeniably fanTAStic people. I just fell in love with David and Kate and was floored by the lengths to which they went to spend time with their grandson, despite the fact that doing so meant dealing with the child's mother, the likely murderer of their son.

The story is fascinating tragedy, marred only by the fact that Kuenne seems too often to want to make it about the story of how one caring guy with a camera is out there exposing truth (he's like a mini Michael Moore). He's indulgent in his narration, actually leaving a hitch in his voice for one of the voice-overs near the end of the movie. Dude. Do another take if you lose it, otherwise I'll know that the crying is for show. Yeah, it's sad, but get it together and be professional -- it's not about you. Actually, that little bit reminded me heavily of the scene in Broadcast News where William Hurt whips up some tears during an interview and has the camera moved to another angle to capture them.

B+ (probably would've been an easy A without the "look at me!" feeling the director gave me)