In a sentenceAileen Wuornos gets to speak, and nobody’s certainty sounds quite so reassuring afterwards
In jail interviews recorded in 2002, Aileen Wuornos speaks to filmmaker Nick Broomfield as questions hang over her fitness for execution. Broomfield examines the handling of her case, including the adequacy of her defence and the media attention surrounding her. Diane Wuornos also appears as herself, with Arlene Pralle and Tyria Moore seen in archive footage. The inquiry brings Wuornos’s troubled background into view while confronting the difficulty of establishing which accounts can be trusted. Broomfield wants to understand how the judicial system reaches its judgement about a woman whose own account is difficult to pin down.
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Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill make a disturbing documentary worth seeing for its jail interviews. The reporting needs firmer organisation, and Broomfield is not nearly as searching about his own part in the spectacle.
Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill’s Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer is worth seeing for its disturbing interviews, despite weaknesses in the reporting around them. It asks us to listen to Aileen Wuornos while questioning the legal and media handling of her case. The prospect of execution gives the questions an urgency that the filmmakers do not always know how to manage.
We were distressed by the jail interviews, because the question of Wuornos’s fitness for execution is so hard to square with her unsettled account of herself. Her testimony gives us reasons to doubt what we are hearing, and that doubt matters when the decision being contemplated is irreversible. A camera cannot settle a clinical question. The film makes the need for a convincing assessment feel urgent.
Churchill, also the cinematographer, gives the interview footage its force by keeping attention on Wuornos as a person answering questions. There is no way to separate the words from the distress of watching her deliver them. Broomfield’s restrained manner can be useful here, since an interviewer announcing his outrage would only get in the way. His reserve also becomes a liability when the film turns towards the institutions handling her case.
Claire Ferguson’s editing brings the interviews together with archive footage, but the inquiry needs a firmer sequence of explanation. The film raises substantial concerns about Wuornos’s defence and the media attention surrounding her case without always distinguishing a demonstrated failure from a troubling impression. There is enough here to demand scrutiny of the judicial process. We wanted a clearer account of how particular decisions were reached.
Broomfield’s own position is the more persistent problem. He is both filmmaker and participant, questioning the attention paid to Wuornos while making a film that depends on access to her. That gives him a responsibility to examine what his questioning is doing, especially when a distressed subject supplies his most compelling material. He does not pursue that responsibility with the same energy he brings to the failures of others. His involvement needs more scrutiny than the film supplies.
Rob Lane’s music registers less strongly than the interviews, which is appropriate for a film so dependent on what people say. The account of Wuornos’s troubled background also helps to explain why simple condemnation seems inadequate here. It does not make her account easier to trust. Within crime documentary, the film’s willingness to leave that difficulty exposed is valuable, even if we wanted a more disciplined investigation alongside it.
For viewers drawn to the uncertainties of a criminal case, there is enough here to justify 89 difficult minutes. Those seeking a clear explanation of the legal decisions will have more cause for frustration. We recommend it with reservations about the man asking the questions. Allow for an uncomfortable evening and an argument afterwards.
The reviews are mixed, with praise clustering around the disturbing interviews with Aileen Wuornos and the documentary’s scrutiny of the institutions surrounding her. Critics who respond favourably find the encounters chilling and sad, and value Broomfield’s attention to her troubled background, the media frenzy and the judicial system. Even some less persuaded reviews acknowledge the force of the interviews. The strongest shared response is to the unsettling material rather than agreement about how Broomfield handles it.
The spread is wide, and Broomfield’s methods are the main point of division. Slant Magazine sees the confused tone as appropriate to an account of truth distorted by media and justice. Variety finds the documentary less focused and cogent than its predecessor, despite the striking interviews. The AV Club raises a sharper ethical objection, finding the approach exploitative and the search for truth half-hearted. Reservations concern both clarity and the treatment of Wuornos.
Gonzalez finds the documentary’s confused tone appropriate to its slippery account of truth. He praises Broomfield’s understanding of how truth is distorted by media and the judicial system.
Read the full review →Newman finds the documentary chilling, sobering and sad. He particularly praises its unsettling jail interviews and its account of Wuornos being deemed fit for execution.
Read the full review →The page content is inaccessible, so the critic’s verdict and specific praise or complaint cannot be determined. The URL identifies a film review of the requested documentary.
Read the full review →The page identifies this as a review of the documentary, but the review text is unavailable. Its metadata singles out Broomfield’s focus on Wuornos’s inadequate defense and the media frenzy around her case.
Read the full review →Bradshaw finds the film powerful, though its deadpan style weakens its force as an anti-death-penalty polemic. He singles out its disturbing portrait of Wuornos’s troubled background and the execution system.
Read the full review →Scheib finds the documentary less focused and cogent than its predecessor, likely suited to a cable niche. The interviews with Aileen stand out, particularly her claims that radio waves control her mind.
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The Thin Blue LineAnother disputed case where the reliability of testimony becomes the central question.
Into the Abyss · not on Fi1m yetDeath row interviews that consider punishment without pretending the crimes do not matter.
Capturing the FriedmansA disturbing family archive makes certainty about a criminal case difficult to sustain.
The Act of KillingFilming perpetrators becomes an unsettling test of what a documentary camera should permit.
The Confession · not on Fi1m yetA political drama about coerced testimony and institutions determined to believe themselves.
