TAT WOLFEN
BACK IN the early 2000s, when the New York Times still had some remaining shreds of credibility and wasn’t finding “scandal” in Republican presidential candidates’ traffic fines, it was forced to fire its prolific and respected writer Michael Finkel after its magazine cover story on child labour in Mali.
Finkel had taken the experiences of more than one Malian youngster and composited them into one, for dramatic purpose. But that indiscretion cost him his job – and the respect of a whole lot of his peers.
The once-lauded journalist found himself out in the cold, with no publications willing to carry his byline.
He receives a phone call one day, however, that informs him that a man who’s been accused of – and arrested for – murdering his wife and three small children, has assumed the identity of “Michael Finkel”.
Instead of being angry, which I’m pretty sure I would’ve been, he’s intrigued, and makes contact with the alleged perpetrator, Christopher Longo (James Franco), who agrees to tell him (what he claims to be) the whole truth – provided that it’s only published after the trial.
So begins Finkel’s obsession with Longo, which, by the way, continues to this day. I’m sure that many reviewers will call their relationship a “cat-and-mouse” one, though I’d prefer to call it a morbid, obsessive dance – and one that kept me in its spell.
Every answer that’s offered us is tethered to at least one more question, so, if there is indeed a catand-mouse game going on, it’s between the film and the viewer. And, if you’re anything like this viewer, you’ll be prompted to do a whole lot of reading up on the case – and the relationship between these two men – after seeing the film.