LOVE & DIANE (Jennifer Dworkin, 2003)

Reviewed: April 20th, 2003

Sometimes the problem with a movie is not what's wrong, but what isn't. Which is to say Love & Diane is an extremely proficient documentary about a young, HIV+ mother (named Love) and her used-to-be-addicted-to-crack-but-now-trying-to-get-her-life-back-together mother (named Diane), the former of whom goes 'round and 'round in destructive circles but ultimately come out with some hope (though the ending is not as uplifting as critics are making it out to be; that last shot of Love's despairing face is bleak), and the later of whom is almost relentlessly positive, coming out of the film with even more hope than her daughter. Unfortunately what I wanted here was something messy and confusing. To compare this movie to Stevie (also about how familial neglect and tragedy is a disease passed from generation to generation and also about a young, obstinate person who was majorly fucked-up in state care, is currently having family troubles but is still trying to get their life straightened out) is demonstrative of just where and how Love & Diane falls short. Stevie is an untidy, complex experience, in which the filmmaker is as big a character as anyone else, embroiled in a tragedy he's mostly incapable of stopping but also maybe-kinda doesn't completely want to. Lots of critics are bandying about the word "intimate" when discussing Love & Diane, but I felt an intangible distance between camera and subject despite the filmmaker's full backstage access. (NB. After writing this review I have just read Hoberman's Love & Diane piece, which also compares the film to Stevie. Hoberman takes the stance directly opposite from mine, writing "But while Love & Diane is enormously engaging, Stevie is a disaster..." I don't have the time or energy to pick apart Hoberman's seriously flawed argument, so let it suffice to say I beg to differ with him on virtually every one of his points.)

When a filmmaker asks for two hours and thirty-five minutes of my time I expect to be moved (which I really wasn't by Love & Diane, to be honest) and I expect to be taken to a few places I don't think I've ever been before (but this is pretty familiar, impoverished terrain). What I'm primarily left with from Love & Diane is that people shouldn't have children when they're eighteen years old (especially when the eighteen year old in question is an HIV+ dropout), or more accurately, people should be a lot more discerning of their birthing motives in general (Love & Diane confirms my long held belief that having children is a lot more selfish an act than parents are willing to admit; one of the most emotional moments for me here is when Love says point blank she decided to have a child because she wanted something with meaning in her life and when Diane then echoes those sentiments by saying she had her six children because she wanted to fill the hole in her heart, she wanted to be needed [and with motives like those is it really any surprise they've both failed their respective children miserably?]; likewise, Stevie's mom decided she no longer wanted her son only a short while after having him). Needed Diane was and there for those who needed her Diane was decidedly not; all her children were taken away to foster care and/or state institutions while she was addicted to crack. Eventually Diane got rehab and they were returned (at around the point which this five year-spanning film seems to begin), but not without some massive damage already inflicted: Love had contracted the HIV virus and one of Diane's sons had committed suicide.

There's a lot of wheel-spinning here, which although true to life, doesn't make for the most engaging viewing (though I was never outright bored). The concentric, hellish circles are harrowing and exasperating, especially since Love suffers from depression so watching her can get excessively dreary (again, compare her to Stevie, who had just as rough [if not even rougher] a life and is just as self-destructive as Love, but still comes off as more endearing and transfixing). According to press notes Dworkin (and critics) think she's made a critique of the welfare system, but Salon.com's Laura Miller agrees with me that -- at least as depicted in Love & Diane -- the system actually seems to work pretty damn well (is anyone really prepared to argue that Love was a suitable parent when her baby was taken from her and placed in a -- by all indications, safe and loving -- foster home?; if you do believe Love didn't deserve to have her son taken from her, I'm just glad you're not my mom or dad). I concede a lot of people will be more affected by Love & Diane than I was, so lemme caution not to let my frigidity (necessarily) discourage you from checking it out. Still, the greatest documentaries do something special, something profound and I wouldn't apply either adjective to this film.

Return home.