Dear Distant Dad

Teen counselor Jack Woolworth opens Dear Distant Dad with a few comments about the hurting teenagers he sees from broken families. Children in these situations often remain with the mother, and many times the biological fathers drift away. While the increasing number of divorces in our country offers a good reason for an examination of this subject, Dear Distant Dad isn't it. Off camera, Woolworth asks questions of five teens and reads to them from their own journals--a strangely insular experience which locks the audience out. We watch, uncomfortably, thanks to the MTV-style close-up camerawork, as the kids sob while listening to their own writings. If the subject were not an inherently sad and tragic one, the scenes would be ludicrous. The teens vary in their particular situations (Stephanie took to drinking, Kristen slept with a number of boys to gain affection, Jason is given to violent fits of self-destructive rage, etc.) but the pain that they express over their lost fathers is largely the same and undoubtedly genuine. But interviewer Woolworth who plays the Dr. Freud Jr. role ("tell me how you feel about that") steers the conversation into areas which will elicit the maximum emotional impact. On the one hand, it could be argued that he's trying to get the kids to open up. On the other, it might be argued that the filmmakers are going for emotional sentimentality. I opt for the latter. What would your response be to a shot of a teenager hugging a teddy bear close to her as seen through a soft-focus lens? Capturing a spontaneous moment? We think not. Not a necessary purchase. (See THE AMISH: A PEOPLE OF PRESERVATION for availability.)