Prodigal Sons: 3 of 5 stars
Kimberly Reed, who began life as Paul McKerrow, thought bringing a film crew home to Montana offered the chance to document her acceptance or rejection by her long-estranged brother Marc, a guy who had never been able to compete when Paul was the star quarterback, most-likely-to-succeed guy in high school, and who has never gotten over Kimberly’s sex change operation.
But as dramatic as that confrontation over “my transition” is -- helped along by Marc’s violent mood swings dating from a car accident brain injury years before -- Kimberly is shocked to have her personal drama one-upped by a discovery, mid-movie, by Marc. He’s the long-lost grandson of Orson Welles, a boy adopted by Kimberly’s parents.
Film buffs will recognize the round face and expressive brow as his grandfather’s, and maybe pick up that his violent fits resemble the room-trashing tantrum Welles tossed, on film, in Citizen Kane.
All the sadness and self-obsession with Reed’s personal and family issues makes for a documentary we’ve seen versions of before. But Marc’s ultimate revenge on the sibling who always had the limelight is in utterly derailing Kimberly’s movie once his lineage is revealed.
Screening at: 4:45 p.m. Saturday, March 28, Regal; 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 31, Enzian.
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