Dad's In Heaven with Nixon

Filmmaker Tom Murray's poignant documentary has the overall look and feel of a moderately sophisticated home movie, yet it effectively deals with a complicated familial history, easing the viewer into Murray's immediate family's rarefied world as it was around the mid-20th century. For years, the family hopped between the tennis clubs of Southampton, NY, and Manhattan's über-haute Park Avenue. Descended from the prolific and prosperous inventor T.E. Murray, the filmmaker looks at the bipolar disorder that ruined the lives of subsequent generations of Murray men: his grandfather, an alcoholic who died at 37; and his own father, who died at 52 from a mysterious drowning after a lifetime of living with anger and depression. At the center of the production is Tom's younger, learning-disabled, autistic brother Chris, who was—by 1960s medical standards—seemingly fated to languish in institutions. Chris's extraordinary story eventually begins to take shape as we learn more about his odd speech disorder and behavioral quirks, his day job at a health food store, and—most significantly—his substantial artistic abilities, which were triggered by the death of his dad, whom he imagines to be in heaven playing cards with Richard Nixon. Chris's colorful paintings of Manhattan cityscapes exhibit a childlike charm that eventually translates into real-world financial success. A strangely affecting portrait of how the current generation of Murrays have quietly triumphed over their burdensome legacy, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Sandlin)