This fact-based MTV flick finds a middle ground between the hackneyed grandstanding of NBC's The Matthew Shepard Story and the nuanced experimentation of HBO's The Laramie Project. Directed by River's Edge veteran Tim Hunter, Anatomy of a Hate Crime focuses on the months leading up to and following the 1998 murder of Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard. Max Ember's teleplay explores not only Shepard's struggle for self-acceptance, but also the petty criminality and downward mobility of his killers and their girlfriends. Shepard's parents and his best friend, Romaine Patterson, who figured prominently in the other two filmed versions of the story, do not appear -- presumably because of legal issues regarding their rights to their own stories. The result is a film that lives up to its title, portraying the social and economic forces that shaped the lives of Shepard's murderers and leaving open the question of whether hate was truly the motivating factor. The unfortunate choice to provide stagey voice-over narration by Shepard himself -- in the form Cy Carter, who turns in an otherwise strong performance -- hampers the film's otherwise sociological approach. Otherwise, Anatomy of a Hate Crime tells another compelling version of events that shaped the ongoing national debate about gay rights.
by Brian J. Dillard
review
