What a insane story. Okay, so what I can decipher from this fascinating documentary by Errol Morris is back in 1977 you have this mildly attractive young woman with mental issues, Joyce McKinney, and she becomes
obsessed with a local guy, Kirk Anderson, who's a Mormon so he's clearly off his rocker as well. Anyway they become a couple(?), but then he goes to England on a missionary trip without telling her. She then starts hooking in order to pay a detective to find Kirk. Once she locates Kirk she hires some dudes to go with her to England to free him. Two of them back out, but one stays and they get Kirk (the story gets foggy here) and take him to a remote cottage where Joyce attempts to un-brainwash him with three days of nonstop sex. Eventually Kirk calls his family, they pick him up and press charges against Joyce for kidnapping and rape. That's when the tabloid newspapers get a hold of the story and it explodes.
Filmmaker Morris never challenges McKinney in any of her claims so all we have to base our opinions on are Mckinney's interview, which was probably a wise decision cause I don't think she's the type to take kindly anybody questioning her. Early on she claimed to have an I.Q. of 168!!! There's also interviews with a few around the edges of the story characters two newspaper reporters and one of the guys who backed out early on. Unfortunately Kirk Anderson refused to take part in the film. Even so Joyce is one hell of a character an carries the entire film. Words explode out of her mouth nonstop and it's pretty apparent that she's unhinged, but that just makes for great entertainment.
TABLOID is a fun lightweight documentary and definitely worth checking out.
