This documentary was interesting because of the unique style
What I loved most about this style was that everyone’s opinion on the situation was included, all the kids (step and real) and her friends, her step dad, biological dad. It is funny how the biological father thought that this was a bad idea since it would ruin the structure of a documentary, making it too messy and uncoordinated, however, I actually liked her style more. Everyone’s opinion was expressed, and at the end of the documentary, every viewer came up to their own conclusions, nothing was forced. In a sense, I could see similarities between this documentary style and the one used by Joshua in “The Act to Kill”, in the sense that the director kind of laid back, and observed, letting everyone give their opinion, and letting viewers come to their own conclusions, and not forcing their’s (the directors own).
My conclusion at the end of the day was that the mother was at some fault. She had a relationship with three different men, you can not cover that fact up just by saying “she did not find her true love”, at one point you have to hold her accountable for being in a relationship with three different men. It certainly did affect her kids in a way, throughout the entire movie, you could feel a sense of the kids being confused, they did love her dearly, but you could sense something in them (as if they did not really know who their mother truly was, but I could be wrong). This also obviously probably hurt the step father, since he was cheated on (although he still loved his kids as if they were his own).
Another thing I found interesting was the fact that the director used staged footage, to make it seem like legitimate old family footage. The family videos seemed so authentic, only at the end when it was revealed that they were staged by actors, that I realized they were fake. Still, it was a very nice touch, and it definitely added to the visuals of the overall documentary.
Rafi Zaman 