Dear Zachary

It can't be denied that Kuenne shows a bias in his film, and I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with that. The manner in which he presents the events leading up to both Andrew Bagby and his son's murder are meant to be very emotionally powerful in order for us to better feel the torment and rage felt by all who knew the two, especially Andrew and Kathleen. After viewing it, I didn't feel as if my emotions were manipulated, or that Shirley Turner was unfairly portrayed; it's difficult to imagine a way in which her actions could have been shown in a positive light. By the same token, if there was some aspect of the story that Kuenne omitted that would have changed my opinion about Dr. Turner, I can't possibly imagine what it would have been. She was very likely mentally unstable, but Kuenne addressed this in the film, and the judge had deemed that since her single target had been taken care of, she was sound enough to remain a member of society. Where the film may have been somewhat unnecessarily manipulative of its audiences' emotions was in the title. For most of its duration, we believe that the letter he is writing is to Andrew's son, Zachary (he even states this several times). Logically, everyone assumes that since a letter is being written to him (and an entire movie made for him), then he must still be alive. Indeed, the emotional climax (for me, at least) was when Zachary's murder was presented. By having the audience make a basic assumption, the young child's death is even more painful to learn about. Not until the very end does Kuenne state that the letter is no longer for Zachary, but for his grandparents, meaning that the title "Dear Zachary" exists to mislead and manipulate us. Kuenne could have easily mentioned Zachary's death early in the film (as he had done for Andrew), but this would have made it less powerful. By withholding that knowledge from us, he allows us to relate to those who knew Zachary, for they undoubtedly were unspeakably surprised by the child's untimely end.