Movie Review : Child-Abuse Case Jolts Family in ‘Jaundiced Eye’

Nonny de la Pen~a’s “The Jaundiced Eye,” a documentary chronicling a terrible miscarriage of justice strung out over a decade, is a real-life family horror story. A father and son in a quaint, Norman Rockwell-like Michigan town are caught between a collision of two emotionally charged forces in American society: a lingering homophobia and a growing concern about child abuse.

In his teens, Stephen Matthews, before coming out as gay, fathered a child by his girlfriend; she raised their son, and Stephen had visitation rights. This workable relationship was shattered when the mother acquired a new boyfriend. When Stephen found his son had a black eye, he and the boy’s grandfather, Melvin, who runs the family live bait shop, grew suspicious and did sufficient investigating to become convinced that the boyfriend had given the child the injury.

Stephen warned the boyfriend about ever laying a hand on his son again--and the boyfriend, not identified by name, is heard on the soundtrack admitting he came from and believes in a “disciplined family.” Shortly thereafter, the boy, by then 5, accused his father and grandfather and implicated even his grandmother of repeated sexual molestation and torture. Although charges against the grandmother were dropped, Stephen and Melvin, who were inadequately defended by their attorney, were swiftly convicted primarily on the boy’s testimony--and no physical evidence.

In prison, Melvin turned to bodybuilding and religion for sustenance, while Stephen became a jailhouse lawyer, discovering shocking lapses in the handling of their trial, which eventually led to their release. Nonetheless, father and son, years later, faced the prospect of a retrial.

Fueled by the ignorant but widespread belief that gays are, by their very nature, pedophiles, the plight of Stephen and his father (who is straight) reflects how the issue of child abuse has become so hot--and correctly so--that the rights of the accused have in many instances become eroded drastically. You can’t see this documentary without being reminded of the McMartin case in Manhattan Beach.

Of the many child-abuse experts De la Pen~a has on camera, the most illuminating and crucial is Kate Hart, head of the National Child Abuse Defense Center; one of her many telling points is that once a child has become convinced that he has been molested, it’s all but impossible to change his mind.

While driving home the care needed in the prosecution of child-abuse cases, “The Jaundiced Eye” also becomes a portrait of an entire family bearing up under a long and terrible ordeal, one they will never really be able to put behind them. De La Pen~a is resourceful in re-creating their ordeal, taking us to the courtroom, the jail, the prison and all other salient locales while we hear testimony on the soundtrack, plus interviews from those willing to speak for the record but not be filmed. Comprehensive and thoughtful, “The Jaundiced Eye” is as compelling as it is illuminating.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: language, adult themes and situations; entirely inappropriate for children.

‘The Jaundiced Eye’

A SomFord Entertainment presentation of a Fifth Estate production in association with Pyedog Productions. Writer-director Nonny de la Pen~a. Producer Dan Gifford. Principal cinematographer Bestor Cram. Music Michael Brook. Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes.

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