Allen v Farrow review: a documentary in dire need of some objectivity

Pat Stacey

Woody Allen and Mia Farrow long before the allegation that Allen had sexually molested Dylan Farrow. Photo by Sipa Press/REX/Shutterstock

March 16 2021 08:54 AM

Objectivity appeared to go out the window in most of the American reviews of four-part documentary Allen v Farrow (Sky Documentaries), which arrived here a day after the final episode was broadcast on HBO in the US.

It was variously described by different TV critics as “damning”, “thoroughly convincing”, “nuanced” and “powered by unflinching candour”. One especially effusive reviewer hailed it as “an extraordinarily detailed investigative work”.

Admittedly, I’ve had time to watch only one episode (all of them are available from Sky on demand).

In the meantime, unless I’ve suddenly lost the ability to understand the meaning of basic words, there’s nothing in the first hour of Allen v Farrow that fits any of the above descriptions.

It’s hard to avoid the feeling that, with the exception of a few outliers, the US critics’ write-ups reflected how they and a large number of other Americans — including, it appears, every actor working in Hollywood celebrity except Diane Keaton and Alec Baldwin — feel about Woody Allen rather than how they feel about the documentary.

Should anyone need a recap, it’s been alleged that Allen sexually molested Dylan Farrow, his adopted daughter with Mia Farrow, when she was a little girl. The abuse supposedly took place one afternoon while Mia was out of the house.

Mia first made the allegation in 1992, when Dylan was just seven. This was just several months after Allen had admitted having an affair with Soon-Yi Previn, Mia’s then 21-year-old adopted daughter. Mia had discovered Polaroids of a naked Soon-Yi, taken by Allen, in the latter’s apartment.

It reemerged with even greater force in 2014, when Allen and Farrow’s only biological child together, the journalist Ronan Farrow, who helped expose the predator Harvey Weinstein, added his voice to that of Dylan, who’d begun to speak out.

Allen, who’s been married to Soon-Yi for 24 years now, vehemently denies the allegation, claiming it was an act of revenge cooked up by Mia. He’s supported by his other adopted child with her, Moses Farrow, who claims he witnessed Mia extensively coaching Dylan to say that Allen had abused her.

Doctors at the Yale New Haven Hospital’s sexual abuse clinic examined Dylan and concluded she was not sexually abused by Allen. New York State’s Department of Social Services investigated and found “no credible evidence” that Dylan had been “abused or maltreated”. Allen also passed a lie detector test.

When a story is as harrowing as this one, people tend to respond emotionally rather than intellectually, which is why Allen v Farrow demands clear-eyed, cool-headed, objective analysis.

Someone has to be objective, because objectivity is not something its directors, Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick, are interested in.

Ziering and Dick have described themselves in the past as activists as well as filmmakers. Activism is not journalism. It’s about reaffirming, not questioning or investigating.

One thing you have to remember when watching Allen v Farrow — whose title conjures up images of a trial, even though nobody was charged with anything or appeared in a courtroom — is that it’s not a regular documentary. It’s advocacy. It gives one side of the story, and one only.

Ziering and Dick spent four years working closely with Mia, Dylan and Ronan to put the series together. Woody Allen, Soon-Yi and Moses Farrow, on the other hand, were reportedly given two weeks to agree to do interviews. All three declined.

As well as Dylan, Mia and Ronan, the contributors include several close friends of the Farrows, including a schoolmate of Mia’s, a number of sympathetic journalists, Mia’s older sister and a couple of the other Farrow children. There’s not a single dissenting voice.

In lieu of an interview with Allen, there are extracts from the audiobook of his autobiography, which are used selectively, and to carefully damning effect.

Photographs and home movies which would appear perfectly innocent at any other time are rendered sinister through the addition of some ominous music.

Allen’s career and reputation are already destroyed anyway. What really takes a battering here is film-making integrity.

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Allen v Farrow review: a documentary in dire need of some objectivity

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