Movie review: 'Dear Zachary'
Dear Zachary
4 stars
Documentary by Kurt Kuenne
Kurt Kuenne’s intensely personal documentary “Dear Zachary” is one of the most emotionally draining, devastating films to come out in recent years and will put your tear ducts to work.
On Nov. 5, 2001, a young doctor named Andrew Bagby was shot to death in western Pennsylvania. In the following days, evidence pointed resoundingly to an ex-girlfriend named Shirley Turner, but she fled the country for her home in Newfoundland before U.S. authorities could intervene. Soon after, she announced that she was pregnant with Andrew’s child, a boy named Zachary.
David and Kate Bagby, Andrew’s parents, moved from California to Newfoundland to be close to their grandson and to expedite the extradition process that would put Turner, who was all but legally guilty, on trial. But in Newfoundland, the law was cruel to David and Kate. In order to spend time with their own grandson, they were forced to jump through confounding legal hoops and cooperate with a woman they were certain killed their son.
It’s a battle that no grieving parent should have to face, and yet these parents endured it with remarkable dignity.
Kuenne, a childhood friend of Bagby’s, decided to make “Dear Zachary” to commemorate his late friend and to show Zachary what kind of man his father was. Kuenne drives around the country and crosses the Atlantic to film friends and family as they remember Bagby — and without resorting to exaggeration or hyperbole, it’s evident that Bagby was a dear friend and relative to many.
The story evolves in ways I won’t disclose, but I’ll say that the twists and turns are so enraging and gut-socking, you will need some hankies. The film juxtaposes the best of humanity with the utter worst, and the result is searingly stark. As traumatizing as it is, though, “Dear Zachary” reels you into a domain of unfiltered emotion and, in the end, makes you feel that much more human for being touched by such pure effusions of love and hate. This film is a tribute not only to Andrew Bagby, but to the precious power of family, community and human connection.
