Micitype Pretty Good

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

evening1 Here is a powerful documentary on a case of domestic violence that dragged on for 19 years before Wendy Maldonado bashed her husband's head in with a hammer. We see and hear a lot about the facts of this sordid situation, but this documentary is seriously diminished by its lack of attention to the psychology behind such terrible events. Why did Wendy stay with her brutal husband when the injuries he caused would have sent him to prison many times over? If she couldn't afford to leave, OK, I think the viewer could accept that. But ask her, at least!Clearly concerned friends, family, and neighbors of Wendy are interviewed on camera, and they all knew about the brutality. Yet Wendy takes a plea deal because, she says, after so many years of abuse she couldn't believe that anyone, including a jury, would care or demonstrate sympathy. As a result, she's now serving a 10-year term with no possibility of early release. The film gives no clue as to what caused Wendy finally to crack and give her husband a taste of his own medicine. Nor is any information given about the role of her oldest son, Randall, who also accepts a deal and also had to go to jail. These are serious and inexplicable omissions. I'm glad I saw this because domestic violence is a terrible problem in our society. Yet I can't help wondering if the filmmaker agreed not to ask certain questions in order to gain access.

saneman1 I saw the HBO version with the changed title. My low rating does not reflect my lack of interest in the actual case itself. I wish 48 Hours made this instead of a pretentious filmmaker. THere is sadly, nothing new or strange about this case or the people involved that merits "a day in the life of" approach taken to showing the 4 days leading up to her sentencing and the past flashbacks. The doc starts off great showing anold eerie clip of the family at some carnival like setting. We get thewhole picture of the dynamics and what life was and is like for these people in the first 15 minutes. Why is it deemed revelatory that the killers are ordinary good people? Showing the mother just go through the motions in those four days is a waste of my time and bores me. It is because we understand right away why she did what she did. We do not need to see boring footage to be convinced this is a normal woman.They could have easily condensed the first 50 minutes into 15 minutes and spent more time exploring at least one or more of the following issues - why did the cops fail them, and why did such an indifferent system all of a sudden feel the need to extract justice now and sentence them to an inhumane amount of time in jail? Showing the judge mentioning that his hands were tied was not enough. There had to be some depiction of the defense team and why they failed the mother and son.The blunt truth is this . This is a case that is sadly not uncommon in our society. The filmmaker taking a passive approach doesn't reveal to us anything that is educational or revelatory. What is of interest is how the system failed them before and after the murder. I would like to know what the defense attorneys said that did not convince her she didn't have a good chance of a better outcome? I would like to know why the DA was not persuaded to present a better deal.

Antioed This is a fantastic film...so sad, so wrong and so *real*.Everyone knows a documentary tells a true story. To me, a *good* documentary tells a true story that evokes a strong emotional response from the viewer. This one resonated strongly with me.How easy it is for those who have not *lived through* extreme domestic violence to judge Wendy for staying with Aaron. They have not experienced the constant humiliation, torment and manipulation at the hands of an abuser. Abusers like Aaron are not dumb - they are *psychotic* and often masters of intimidation and manipulation. I should know, I grew up with one. Perhaps after having all your teeth knocked or broken out you might understand; or maybe the constant threats on your life and the lives of those you love if you leave? We all say "well I don't understand - I would just leave him"...of course we don't understand - we are not Wendy; we didn't marry that guy at eighteen and have kids with him. We can never know what it's like until we walk a mile in her shoes...the point of the film. I thought the ending was executed brilliantly by the director...brutally real...frustrating. It left me in total consternation with our so-called "justice" system. Wendy and Randy should not have been imprisoned...they should be in therapy.

JustCuriosity One Minute to Nine had its North American Premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX. The film tells the heartbreaking story of Wendy Maldonado and how decades of domestic abuse finally led her to kill her abusive husband. The film was well-received by an audience deeply sympathetic to her predicament.The film is beautifully edited. The use of the family's home videos to supplement the 5-day footage with some historical background is powerful. The story that they tell is emotionally devastating, but it feels like half a story that raises more questions that it answers. Much more could have been done if they had chosen to interview the lawyers, the law enforcement officials, the judge, and experts of domestic violence to build a larger context around Wendy's specific case.In some ways, the inherent drama of the story of Wendy and her children is more compelling and disturbing than the film Tommy Davis has made. Davis set out to make a film about how a family copes with the prospect that a loved one is being sent to prison in a few days. They apparently, almost accidentally, stumbled on Wendy Maldonado and her case which raises all sorts of legal and moral questions about domestic violence. They succeeded in telling that limited story that they set out to tell, but film doesn't seem to go far nearly far enough in exploring the societal implications of this tragedy which ultimately seems more important than the relatively narrow project that they present to the audience.By telling her story they open up many important political, social and cultural questions, which they chose not to systematically address. Their narrow focus allows them to focus on the brief window of time leading up to her incarceration and the family history that led up to it, but they choose not to explore the deeper questions of the failure of the system that led up to this tragedy.Why didn't the police arrest her husband for assault and domestic abuse during the proceeding 2 decades of abuse? Couldn't she have left him and sought a restraining order? Why didn't her family and friends help her to get out of this situation? Where were the social service agencies? Why did she get such a long prison sentence? What sort of legal representation did she have that advised her to take the plea bargain offered her? Is there an effort to get her a pardon or clemency? Decades after the "Burning Bed" made this sort of occurrence a national shame, how often does this still happen in the US and how can it be stopped? While it is always easy to criticize documentary film makers for the film that they didn't make, in this case, the story cries out for a deeper examination and what they have done feels like it has opened up a door, but failed to walk through it. The film is compelling and important for what it shows us; however, it also feels narrow and unsatisfactory, because there is so much more that we need to know to try to understand the broader social and political implications of why Wendy is sitting in prison cell today.