Tabloid
IFC Centre, August 4, 2011
Movie #54 for 2011
Joyce McKinney (pictured) was a young American woman, in love with a Mormon man who ‘disappeared’ one day in the late 1970s. Joyce followed him to England where he was fulfilling his religious mission and then kidnapped him, tied him up in a cottage in Devon and had sex with him all weekend - an act that would both get him excommunicated from his church and also cripple him with a lifetime of guilt and shame. She claims it was consensual, he cries kidnap and rape. The British papers had a field day. Tabloid seems less interested in discovering the truth of the case than in profiling its extremes.
Director ERROLL MORRIS makes a show of being non-judgemental, but he has clearly made up his mind about his interview subjects and the “Manacled Mormon” case. He pokes fun at everyone involved and also at Mormonism through wacky cartoons and film clips. It’s kind of unnecessary, though- Mormonism is strange enough to the uninitiated without being ridiculed.
The most interesting thing about the documentary is not the salacious event but rather the characters involved in it. McKinney is a nutbar who revels in the attention of the documentary and in her own theatrics. Her drama becomes wearying after a time, which is clearly Morris’ point. He shows the two journalists who worked the story for opposing tabloid papers to be fascinatingly principle-free as they proudly recount stories of paying for scoops, stealing personal records and hiding sources (which is most interesting in light of the recent News of the World events).
In lieu of an interview with the manacled Mormon himself, Morris talks to a young gay ex-Mormon who explains the myths, rituals, traps and psychology of the faith. His is the most interesting perspective in the film. It’s incredibly illuminating of what McKinney's prey's experience might have been. The rest of the film is not illuminating at all - but fascinatingly so.
