Funny this movie should come up again. Dr. G has spoken about it before. I find that Capturing the Friedmans is a perfect illustration of a dysfunctional family and how it works. The children and the father are absolutely aligned against the mother on the side of the father, with whom they have a very sick, distorted relationship masked as love. There is a need, a drive to hold on to the appearance of a good, loving, kind family even as the family spirals down into chaos -- and that overwhelming need surpasses any other, even in the mother, who is I think the healthiest of the entire family. She knows something is wrong and will speak about it. Would that other families and places of dysfunction have someone who can speak up without being silenced by the other members. And they try to silence her, the mother, visciously at times. That is brilliantly shown in the way the movie is edited.
