Capturing the Friedmans | Review

Fascinating family portrait is a complex journey to the truth– or some form of truth.

On the surface, the happy go-lucky Friedmans aren’t any different from your typical family, comprised of the patriarch Arnie, his semi-conscious wife and there free-spirited three sons, but one day, the chemistry and spirit of this family gets tested by a deliverance of a truth yet to be uncovered. Pushed by the unsatisfactory response of “I don’t want to speak about it”, first-time feature documentary filmmaker Andrew Jarecki digs deep into the crossfire of those in favor and those opposed to what exactly happened in the basement of a family home. Through candid interview, a delicate balancing act between fact and fiction is created thus showing first hand how the police ‘capture’ the accused and how a son with a video camera ‘captures’ the type of emotions that only a Meryl Streep could belt out on demand.

A package containing sickening material gets intercepted and redistributed to an address by the reliable postal service with law enforcement not far behind—the result is a domino affect of events. Capturing the Friedman’s is perhaps the best documentary film since The Thin Blue Line where a crime gets re-examined through the scope of subjective and objective interpretations. This aptly titled hot potato of a documentary reveals the true nature of home movies, for revealing the candidness and comical nature of family testimonials made with the intention to document it and perhaps watch it in the living room and not as a feature film at the movie theatre.

Jarecki doesn’t get judgmental in his treatment of the facts, he demonstrates how one could fall into the trap of the tight-community hysteria and shows how once again how police procedures should also be questioned rather than assumed. But the film goes a little further than the town swollen up by anger syndrome, as Jarecki knows how to build the story and force the viewer into a sense of anticipation. What occurs is a shifting of opinion within the text, almost with a twist in narrative where even the prologue contains a surprise. From the multi point of views of the Friedman’s themselves to everyone else on the guilty or not guilty food chain from the law enforcement to the courts, to the media and the people in this pocket-sized community, this doc shows the layers of truth. What is particularly startling is the access we have into the insurmountable crisis that the Friedman family found themselves in, accessible with the intimate home movies, pictures and anecdotes and the outside world. What is perhaps stunning is how the filmmaker got a hold of this and how despite the truth of a pedophilia of a father how some people stay loyal.

Jarecki’s takes one dark secret out of the closest and brilliantly exposes it to the light and shade revealing not necessarily the truth but the effects of the dysfunctional. Capturing the Friedman’s is a sad film and will stir up a list of emotions ranging from shock to bafflement always intriguing and stir you up—a pleasant viewing experience just because every spurt of information gives us access into this complex journey of who to believe or what to believe.

Rating 4.5 stars