"Are all these things we think are so important, really that important?” Charley's voice asks over the crackling home tape recording. He, a restless father of four, and Allis, a self proclaimed non conformist housewife who struggles to find her purpose in the world, endure a laborious marriage that lead them to undertake a variety of therapeutic resolutions.
The pursuit for catharsis is intermittent in Must Read After my Death. The Hartford family, under a close lens, exemplifies the results of too much therapy, institutions, drugs, drastic measures taken in attempts to heal problems in marriage and adds ever more fibres to the web of family problems. Life only gets worse for this family as they continuously try to fix it. The relics are depicted in this documentary in a collage of authentic footage, photographs and audio diaries recorded by Allis and other members of the immediate family between 1967 - 1969.
Most of the audio recordings are made by Allis as practice for marriage counselling. She reveals secrets she isn't yet ready to share with her husband, with whom there seems to be an endless power struggle. Her psychiatrist also encourages her to record household arguments. These usually occur between Charley and Bruce, their son, who, by the advice of a particular psychiatrist in a long line of many, is sent to an adult mental institution at the age of 14.
The shady psychiatrist, Dr Lenn, is full of questionable advice. Every session becomes more and more tense, and anger flares in the recordings - during which, the viewer may get the feeling they are pressing their ear up to a keyhole to catch snippets of a private conversation in a room mates life. It is very evident that these conversations occurred within the privacy of one's household. The subject matter is very personal. Allis's desperate attempts to patch the holes in the family quilt lead her to accept any advice that comes her way, it seems.
The viewer becomes enveloped into their small world and the documentary can be stressful to watch at times. However, it is not without sympathy that the viewer is made to regard the victimized narrator. Allis is very much a product of her environment - one she had the pressure to create, and maintain, mostly alone. All the while embarking on a frenzied endeavour to achieve the status of a 'Woman with a capital W'- she is a desperate housewife of her time. At one point, she expresses empathy for mothers who kill their children to save them from the dreadful prospects of a fruitless life - evidence of her eventual insanity that all the 'help' leads to.
This leads me back to Charley's initial question. Are all these things we think are so important, really that important? Allis and Charley are no doubt responsible for their 4 children and their home, but it comes at the expense of Allis's sanity and eventually, Charley's life.
If there is a fable that goes along with this cautionary tale, it is surely that there is violence in love, and it can obscure one's vision in terms of doing the right thing. Must Read After my Death, directed by Allis and Charley's grandson Morgan Dews, is a testament of love based on utility - for the sake of the family. The complex tale finds its catharsis in this philosophy.
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