Review of Capturing the Friedmans (2003) by Devon B — 24 Mar 2009

A seemingly normal Long Island family gets turned upside down when the father's child porn addiction is discovered by police. What follows is a child-molestation hysteria that leaves the family in shambles.

"Capturing the Friedmans" invites the audience to decide who's telling the truth, and who's telling what they believe is the truth, even while the filmmakers themselves seem pretty well decided in what they believe.

The father, Arnie Friedman, seems a little eccentric: he's a musician and science teacher, who also held a computer course for kids in his home. His oldest son, Jesse (who was 18 at the time), also helped teach the class.

After the father is busted for his child pornography, the police take the list of students from his computer class and go round to each of their homes to investigate possible molestations. While some students tell police nothing ever happened, others decribe wild scenes of child orgies, where the father and son routinely and violently raped large groups of kids in front of the whole class.

The stories couldn't be more conflicting. On top of all this, the father admits to molesting kids when he was a young teen, and to "touching" boys inappropriately as an adult living in another community.

But he swears to his innocense when it comes to the kids of the computer class. The mother is devastated by her husband's actions and finds resentment from her other sons for not standing by her husband.

But was she more jealous of the husband for his close relationship with their sons? It was always a boys club and she wasn't always allowed in on the joke. The bulk of the film is told through old video clips and 8mm footage of the family, often goofing around, and seemingly happy.

A fascinating, yet tragic life story.