Dear Zachary (2008)
Dear Zachary (2008) 8/10
This doesn’t happen often, but by the end of Dear Zachary, you will feel as if you know Andrew Bagby as a friend. As a documentary, Dear Zachary is an intimate, poignant potrayal of one man’s life, and a father’s final letter to his son. It is a beautifully crafted eulogy by a friend all the more endearing because you can sense then sincerity and love behind this film. The film starts as a thoughtful ode to a dearly departed friend, but then changes in tone into something all together different. In truth, the less you know about the Bagbys, the better. This is a film best experienced cold, with no knowledge about the topic.
The film does suffer from one fatal flaw, which is that its does not even pretend to be an objective account and completely demonises certain characters while painting others as paragons of virtue. But it is a story that needed to be told, because it is a tale recounted with passion, anger and love. To make it objective would simply have blunted the power of the film as a visceral, moving experience. Nevertheless, i urge you as viewers to keep an open mind and to always consider the other side’s perspective.
By the end of the film, you would have been enraged, moved and inspired by the film. Despite having somewhat amateurish production values, Dear Zachary impresses because it is a labor of love, made to honor the memory of a dearly departed friend. As a film, Dear Zachary is one of the most powerful film experiences i have had and a definite shoo-in for 10 top best films of 2008. A heartbreaking movie.
“Dear Zachary will break your heart—but don’t even consider missing it.”- Cathleen Rountree
