EYE (Toronto) -April 6, 2000

FILM REVIEW

Fathers and sons take a beating

ONSCREEN

By Gema Files

THE JAUNDICED EYE is a hard-hitting documentary exposing the gross miscarriage of justice that sent gay man Stephen Matthews and us father to prison for alleged sexual abuse of Stephen's then five-year-old son. The men are the victims of ignorance, bigotry and a flawed legal system that allows idiotic evidence from the obviously coached child to make the case. It's hard to keep from muttering at the screen in disgust. But although it's an emotionally aggravating film, de la Peña coolly lays out the intellectual and psychological reasons this travesty happened.

Just when you think the gay-unfriendly atmosphere of the United States might be improving - in the wake of Hilary Swank's Best Actress Oscar win for her turn as gender outlaw Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry, for example - along comes a documentary like Nonny de Ia Peña's s "The Jaundiced Eye" to re-assure you that nothing much has actually changed.

The film details the literal and figurative trials of Stephen Matthews, a gay Michigan man falsely accused - along with his straight father, Melvin - by his estranged ex-wife of molesting their five-year-old son. Despite an overwhelming lack of evidence, Matthews and his father were convicted and served four years of their 35-year jail sentences before the verdict was finally overturned after the positive anal chlamydia test that swayed the jury was revealed to be inaccurate.

De la Peña - an unstylish but effective cinematic journalist - catches up with the Matthewses on the eve of their latest challenge: continued harassment from prosecutorial authorities, who now want to have them committed to an institution for the criminally insane as prospective? habitual pedophiles. With subtle strokes, she reveals how being forced to wear the same scarlet letter has helped these two very different men mend their own shaky familial relationship, yet never implies that either consider this reunion worth the way it came about.

Since the documentary was made, Matthews son has signed an affidavit refuting his own testimony, and his ex-wife has separated from the boyfriend whose homophobic distrust of Matthews appears to have originated her suspicions of abuse. As de la Peña demonstrates, however, the damage has already been done.

The Matthews story remains a cautionary tale confirming that accusations of pedophilia are still the ablest way to pursue a vendetta against gay Americans, especially since the resultant media frenzy often prevents authorities from investigating such accusations with the objectivity or thoroughness required. The Jaundiced Eye is an uninventive but harrowing report from the front lines of a society whose attitudes toward homosexuality are changing faster than some might like - but not quite fast enough to really make it count for others.