Explorations of Documentary: Casting JonBenet
Twenty years after the mysterious murder of Colorado pageant girl, JonBenet Ramsey, people across the country continue to reel over the unsolved case. They solemnly reflect on such shocking circumstances. After a slew of classicist T.V. specials and reenacted documentaries, director Kitty Green offers up something new, fresh and cinematically beautiful. But if viewers are looking for a closed case, they will be sadly disappointed.
In the opening scene, a calm empty row of casting chairs is quickly disrupted in a frenzy of stars and stripes by a miniature mob of tiny blondes preparing for the audition of a lifetime—or so they think. Each role in the “film” presents a diverse collection of actors “auditioning” for the part. The majority of the film is an intricate puzzle of audition clips patched together to present the story in all its forms. Viewers are put in the position of casting director, watching face-to-face the inner workings of a casting call for a reenactment of the murder of JonBenet Ramsey and the calamity of an investigation that followed.
In between short, stunning cinematic shots, such as panning across the snow-covered rolling Rocky Mountains that lead to the Ramsey’s home, upwards of 20 cult-like-uniformed actors take the audience through the timeline of the murder and describe the people they hope to act as. The actors/characters on the screen tell the story through their own knowledge, interactions and perceptions of what happened. The result is a contentious yet repetitive rendition of events that floods information to viewers at such an extent that they gain no real knowledge of what really happened. It turns out that nobody knows the truth. But that is the point.
To call a plot pointless would normally be seen as insult (and for some reviewing this film, it is meant to be that way), but the unresolved story in JonBenet serves the film’s purpose. Viewers are led down a path that ends at the same place it started: the (still) unsolved murder of a precious child. That is not to say there is no net gain. Is it merely new context, though? What can really be learned in a plot so confusing, contradictory and ridiculous that nothing is believable and every claim is contested? After a firm discombobulating, viewers are pushed to ignore the “facts” and look deeply at who is telling the story and, ultimately, how we ourselves understand what we know, hear or “feel in our gut.”
Casting JonBenet is a film so thematically reliant on perception that how the story is understood becomes more important than the story itself. In any other portrayal, the story of JonBenet’s murder would be primary, and the people or devices telling the story would be secondary. Green generates a documentary form that reverses this order; JonBenet’s story becomes secondary to the people telling it. This is a point of contention to many who believe Green’s level of exploitation of and insensitivity toward the subject matter to be problematic.
Any and all documentaries exploit their subjects. Perhaps, however, due to the nature of such a sensitive event, this documentary might push it to a distasteful level. After questions of JonBenet’s brother’s possible involvement in some kind of beating, Green has the young boy actors attempt to smash a watermelon with a flashlight. JonBenet’s is a story abashed with conflicting ideas, everybody putting in their two-cents or taking away what they will for the past 20 years; at least this film offers something new, even if by insensitive means.
That something new promotes a reflexive identity to the film. The notion of producing a film about the film itself is nothing too new, but it does represent concepts now at the forefront of contemporary documentary form. Considering the success of a similar film, Kate Plays Kristine, released in the same year by director Robert Greene, Casting JonBenet can be seen as not quite so successful in fulfilling its purpose. Both are films aimed at deconstructing the spectacle of film in order to reach a more transparent view of its truth. The rough approach to this dilemma is successful for Kristine because it is in some ways more self-aware. Green’s approach in JonBenet is visually stunning and perfectly seamless, which seems hypocritical if part of the purpose is to break down the barrier of spectacle—especially considering that Green’s face and voice are absent throughout; she hides behind the camera completely.
The story within Casting JonBenet is ultimately about uncovering the truth. Rather than presenting truth, however, it questions what truth is. How do we come to what we know, and how do we relay that to the world? In a film about perceptions of all kinds and sources, Green’s construction of a seemingly transparent spectacle reflects the ever-amassing story of JonBenet’s murder. Casting JonBenet is successful in this inception of form, as well as in presentation of drama and beauty. In the final scenes, all characters, actual and performed, collide into a powerful, thought-provoking, breath-holding continuous moment of realization. And the angel of little JonBenet Ramsey thanks you for your presence. Viewers may leave with little more to the story than they knew before, but they will continue on questioning the very nature of what they know.