Reviewed by Stacey Kalish
(July 2007)
Director: Amir Bar-Lev
Starring: Marla Olmstead, Mark and Laura Olmstead, Anthony Brunelli, Stuart Simpson
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Description:
Marla Olmstead rocketed from small town obscurity into international renown and sold more than $300,000 worth of abstract paintings in only a few months. She was compared to Kadinsky and Pollock, called a "budding Picasso" and triggered a bidding war between networks over her first television appearance. Marla Olmstead was four years old at the time.
At the peak of the media frenzy, director Amir Bar-Lev gained exclusive access into the Olmstead's home to make a film about this "young genius." But a few months into Marla's fame, controversy hit when CBS's "60 minutes" aired an exposé strongly suggesting the prodigy's paintings were, in fact, doctored or created by her father. The film soon becomes about the filmmaker's struggle to find the truth while being entangled in a family's pursuit to clear their name.
Water Cooler Buzz:
My Kid Could Paint That is packed with dinner conversation starters for people who like to argue over Randy Cohen's "The Ethicist" column around the table. It raises discussion about everything from the credibility of abstract art, the obsession with precocity, the fickle nature of fame and the media's power to build or destroy.
After the climactic "60 minutes" expose, Bar-Lev does not disguise his unhinged doubt over the authenticity of Marla's work. He is torn. He wants to keep his journalistic integrity without burning the subjects who are now his friends. He also finds himself in an emotional tug-of-war with the Olmsteads, who desperately want to ensure his film exonerates them. (At one point in an interview, the Olmsteads blurt out, "We need you to believe us.") He tries to present the evidence neutrally and allow the viewers to draw their own conclusions. But this only serves to illustrate another critical point brought up by the film: Does objectivity ever truly exist when every story has a storyteller?
The film is a compelling and powerful portrait of what happens when the innocence of child's play collides with the adult world of business and fame - a kind of subverted "whodunit" where the main suspect is an adorable toddler rolling around a canvas in a paint splattered diaper. You watch people squirm during interviews, eyes darting; a mother start crying then bitterly sputter, "This is like documentary gold." And it is.
Photo by Mark and Laura Olmstead. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. All Rights Reserved.
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