Date Watched: January 22, 2011
Source: Netflix Instant Play
I’m all about order. I blog in the order I watched. Not this time. I couldn’t. I couldn’t write about Meryl Streep and Nic Cage after seeing this film, nor could I wait until I had calmed down before I wrote. I had to do it now.
And yet, I can’t find the words.
This film… gah. Well first off, because of the project, I’m less likely to pass over something that looks interesting. So while I was browsing through new stuff on Netflix, and the gorgeous cover art caught my eye, I skimmed the description. I’m a girl; I’m into all that heartstrings crap. I figured this would be a Lifetime movie sort of documentary, so I glanced at how many stars it had. Five stars. Wait, that can’t be right. Nothing EVER gets five stars. Maybe four and a portion of the fifth, but never five WHOLE stars. I queued it and went about my business.
Last night it caught my eye again, but my boyfriend was with me, and obviously, guys who shave their heads and wear steel toed boots aren’t into all that heartstrings, Lifetime movie crap, so I made a note to watch it today while I crocheted. About 3 minutes into the film, I realized that my assumption about all the Lifetime movie stuff was so far off that it wasn’t even on the map. I put down my crocheting.
This film is a documentary by a man named Kurt. His best friend Andrew was murdered by a bitter ex lover. She turns out to be four months pregnant with Andrew’s child. The story that unfolds is the most unthinkable nightmare you most likely couldn’t even imagine. I hate spoilers, but in this case, I refuse to say even another word about the actual story because it deserves every ounce of emotion it draws from anyone who watches it.
I couldn’t tear myself away. If I hadn’t been at my desk, at my job, I may have collapsed into sobbing fits. Very few films/plays have been able to evoke that from me, and this one was no different.
This is one of those films that by the time you’re through watching, you feel like you knew everyone personally. Like you want to pick up the phone and give David and Kate Bagby a call, the way you always do, until you realize you were just watching a film about total strangers. That sounds odd and maybe even creepy, but you’re a liar if you can say you’ve never been touched that way by someone you never actually knew; that someone’s story could bring you to your knees in just the relatively short time it took to soak it all in. Either that, or you don’t pay enough attention.
This isn’t for the faint of heart. If you’re shaky in your faith in either God or mankind, I wouldn’t suggest watching. Unless of course, you’re looking for a definitive answer that’ll damn near solidify your stance on either of those things, good or bad. You’ll come to a conclusion, alright. Might not like it, but you’ll come to one.
This is a message that needs to get out. This is a film that needs to be watched. Actions need to be taken, and laws need to be changed. The death of Andrew Bagby and everything that followed, all the pain left in the wake, needs to be justified. If all this grief can be prevented for one other family, then none of it will be in vain.
I’m sure it all sounds cliche, but it’s the truth. I’m distracted, uncomfortable, touched. I want to get up and do something. But there’s not much I can do except write here on my little blog, hope someone reads it, finds it interesting enough to watch the film, and feels the same way I do. Then maybe they’ll write on their little blogs, and someone will read it, watch the film, write on their little blogs… and you get my drift. That’s the only way change happens.
Queue it on Netflix
Edit: I just unpaused the end, noticed there was a website, and in visiting that site, I discovered that just this past December, the law the Bagbys were fighting for has been passed.
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