Thursday, September 27, 2012

Marty Breaks Down Prodigal Sons

Paul McKerrow was born in a small town in Montana. He was voted 'best looking' and 'most likely to succeed'. The star quarterback, the star basketball player, valedictorian and a ladies man. Paul McKerrow had it all. Upon graduating, he went to the University of California, Berkley.

Paul McKerrow never went back to Montana. He never will, because Paul McKerrow is now Kimberly Reed. It's been 20 years since Kimberly, then Paul, left Montana and for her 20th high school reunion, Kimberly decides to go back and make a documentary.

Sounds like a pretty good story line for a documentary. Only that's not the most compelling thing about this documentary. It's barely a side story. The star of this documentary is Kimberly's brother, Marc McKerrow.

The story starts at the high school reunion. Kimberly is received well at the reunion. It's at the reunion that we are introduced to Marc. Marc is adopted and was only a grade ahead of Kimberly in high school. So it isn't weird for him to be at the reunion. He is weird though. We find that out when he just randomly tells people about having to file for bankruptcy.

Marc was always in Paul's shadow in high school. He wasn't the sports star and he certainly wasn't the popular one. He was just Paul's brother.

Marc suffered severe brain damage in a car crash at the age of 21.

The brain damage left him mentally incapacitated. He became prone to seizures. He'd frequently succumb to violent fits of rage. We first see one of these hilarious fits of rage when he explains his crash and what it did to him. Complete with breaking a glass picture frame.

It's then that we meet Todd McKerrow. The youngest of the McKerrow kids. It's unclear as to why he is ever in the documentary. He isn't really needed. He's doesn't really communicate with family anymore. I think he is just thrown into the documentary because it's somewhat interesting that he is gay. He does show up at the family Christmas gathering. Where he plays a key role in the greatest scene in cinema history. His appearance at the family event seems to be more for sake of the documentary than anything. I certainly don't think it's because he likes his family

The McKerrow family consists of Kimberly, who was born Paul. Todd, the least interesting of the family as he is just gay. Then we have Marc. Who is severely developmentally challenged and frequently violent. Quite the family

The documentary jumps around a lot. It's not a hinderance though. Each time it does jump, it gets more interesting.

It's at this point that we, and Marc, learn about Marc's biological family. He does get to see his mom. He got to go to her funeral. It's only shortly after her death that Marc learns the identity of his mom.

It's Rebecca Welles. The daughter of Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. Marc's birth was a secret. Something that was quite common back then with families or prominence. Orson never knew of his grandson. It's likely Rita didn't know about Marc either.

Marc's grandparents are the great Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles. Learning that Marc exists, the lover of Orson Welles at the time of his death, Oja Kodar, wants to meet him.

The documentary then moves to Croatia. Where Marc meets the lover of Orson Welles for the last 20 years of his life. The only interesting things that come out of this are that we learn that Marc is married and has a daughter  A fact that is only briefly brought up again. I feel like Kimberly should have spent more time on Marc's family. Marc also shows a picture that makes Kimberly uncomfortable in Croatia. It's of himself, Todd and Paul as young boys.

Kimberly is embarrassed by the picture. Being that she is now standing in front of these people as a woman. She confronts Marc about this. The scene is a little awkward, since Kimberly is in a swimsuit as the argument takes place. The argument ends with Kimberly saying how good Marc's shirt makes him look.

This is when the documentary briefly gets boring. It start to focus too much on Kimberly. She goes to San Francisco. Where we see the apartment she rented as a male. When she moved out of the apartment, she was a female.

After the brief foray into boredom, we get back to the good stuff. Kimberly goes to Spokane to see Marc and his family. She also plans on driving a truck, that Marc has, back to Montana. The truck mention seems pointless at first. It pays off in the end though.

Kimberly wants to drive the truck back in the morning. The gas gauge is broken. It's been broken for years, but Marc decides he wants it fixed right now. Hilarity ensues.

Marc gets some choice words in and some good hits, but Kimberly gets the last laugh. She leaves with the truck.

We then hear a phone message from Marc, apologizing for reacting in such a way about a stupid truck.

Things fade to black. That's when it happens. The greatest scene in cinema history. I'm not even going to say anything about it. It's that great.


The cops come after that. As far as I'm concerned, the documentary is over after that.

To not leave you hanging though, I'll continue. He threatened everyone with a kitchen knife and is taken to jail.

The documentary ends with Marc going to several hospitals and having many psychiatric evaluations.

Marc McKerrow died in 2010. Shortly after Kimberly appeared on Oprah for her documentary.

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