2007, USA
Biography, Crime, Documentary, Drama, Romance
Ladies, word to the wise: if the man that blinded you with acid asks you to marry him, just say “No.”
Director Dan Klores presents the traumatic tale of two people in love. Well, the tale of one person impressed by financial success and the other obsessed with obtaining a woman. From the moment Burt saw Linda, he had to have her. Too beautiful to leave for someone else, he wooed her with fortunes that made up for his geekish appearance.
Her attractiveness was not only his opinion but is echoed by friends and family interviewed for the documentary. Old home movies show a young, gay Linda living it up with handsome boys that willingly wrapped themselves around her finger, despite her lack of encouragement. This same Linda now sits before the camera, her once bright eyes hidden behind large sunglasses.
Both Linda and Burt had rough childhoods, involving absent and abusive mothers, respectively. But they dealt with their inner pain quite differently. Linda shyly depended on her friends for support and Burt overcompensated with an arrogant control over less fortunate women. As a wealthy ambulance chaser, he propositioned each of his female clients with a simple, “Yes or No?”
Klores surrounds his subjects with peppy songs of the day – harmless ditties like “You've Really Got a Hold on Me” and “You Call It Madness (but I Call It Love).” Like Burt, they are initially disarming but ultimately disturbing in this context. To Linda, he was an adventurous distraction from her usual suitors, as he took her in his plane and on his arm to his own popular nightclub.
Upon discovering he was married, she ended the affair. Furious and jealous of the possibility of another man having her, Burt hired others to harm her so that she would run to him for safety. These are the actions of a man who would be declared sane at the trial that resulted from his successful attempt at harming her and destroying her sight. The same man who said he was “happy to be the defendant because he was able to see her.”
Incredibly, the friends that protected her throughout years of recovery while he continued to profess his love from a jail cell are the same friends that encouraged her to take him back after his release. A bit depressed from lack of attention, a bit broke from lack of employment, they decided she had no better alternative. Minutes earlier they had claimed they wanted him dead at the trial. Somewhere in between, the line between insanity and resignation blurred.
Klores reveals the life of an infatuated man and his victim-cum-wife from all angles: the subjects themselves, wickedly amused friends who keep a safe distance (“Even Hitler had friends”) and news clips. Playing to the catchy beat of swinging songs, Klores lightens up a frightening situation. But there's no question that these two would benefit from a little couple's therapy.