Dear Zachary (#5)

This one made a few best documentary of the year lists, so when I noticed that MSNBC was broadcasting it, I put my DVR to work and saved it. (Turns out MSNBC picked it up as a distributor, and is now showing it fairly often)

Going in all I knew was the basic premise, that the filmmaker was "writing a letter" to his best friends son, following his fathers' murder. I found the film to be ghoulish at times, and more news magazine special then serious documentary. Visually it seemed to borrow a lot from 20/20 type production values which doesn't help to differentiate it. The story has tragic twists and turns, but throughout seems to be confused about the story its telling. What begins as a celebration of his friends life, turns into a graphic account of his murder and it's aftermath, which seemed to undermine it's premise. After a crucial revelation which I won't ruin here, the documentary morphs again to a advocacy argument for victims rights and bail reform. The filmmaker attempts to pull all the threads together by focusing in on his friends parents, but it doesn't quite come together.