On Demand Weekly

Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies and shows on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: APPROPRIATE ADULT (Sundance Channel).

APPROPRIATE ADULT

By Jean Tait

Serial killers make for gruesome, voyeuristic stories. Most non-fiction serial killer stories are told from the point of view of the detectives trying to catch the killer, displaying hideous images of bodies found. APPROPRIATE ADULT takes a completely different tack. APPROPRIATE ADULT begins once the suspect is already in hand. The audience never sees bodies (or body parts), nor do we find out why the suspect has been brought in for questioning in the first place.

Emily Watson, Dominic West / APPROPRIATE ADULT (Sundance Channel)

In the British legal system, an “appropriate adult” is assigned to children or learning-disabled adults to be a suspect’s advocate while they are being questioned. In 1994, Janet Leach, a social worker-in-training got a call to be the appropriate adult for Fred West, a suspected murderer. Ms. Leach sat in on more than 100 interviews with Fred West, a situation for which she was ill-prepared. APPROPRIATE ADULT tells the story of Janet Leach, using trial transcripts and extensive interviews with Ms. Leach.

Emily Watson / APPROPRIATE ADULT (Sundance Channel)

As portrayed by the remarkable Emily Watson (BREAKING THE WAVES, HILARY AND JACKIE), Ms. Leach is both fascinated and repelled by serial killer Fred West. Pulled in by his insistence that she is the only one he can trust, she finds herself unable to disconnect from him even when her job is officially over, and even as her involvement causes problems for her at home. Ms. Watson is always willing to throw herself into the dark side for a character, and she is brilliant here as a woman drawn in, yet unable to comprehend the extent of the evil she is drawn to.