In the press, Anthony Weiner’s real failing was not just being the butt of a sex scandal or an obviously smutty pun, but for a failure of trust. He had gotten caught sending sexually explicit photos to other women, resigned from Congress, apologized, and then got caught again. Lawrence O’Donnell asked him flat out on MSNBC, “What’s wrong with you?” He had shown repeated acts of poor judgment, and his combative presence in the media and with the public belied that of a man who could not control himself.
But honesty was never really his issue. In the scathing and often hilarious new documentary “Weiner,” the curtain gets pulled back to show that Anthony Weiner absolutely gets it and knows how wrong he is, but paints a portrait of a man unable to stop. It’s a film about the media and about compulsion, about a need not just for attention but for vindication. Directors Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg reveal that for all of his smarts, all of his charisma, Weiner seems to seek out conflict and controversy and brings everyone around him down with the ship.
Weiner became a star on the Congressional stage by actually showing a spine to the Republicans. He got stuff done and had a don’t quit attitude to which the public could relate. The documentary picks up two years after his resignation during his run for New York Mayor, and it puts his fire in Congress into a different light. His spark in Congress earned him respect among NY voters, and every time his opponents attacked his morals and his conduct, they booed the attacks and wrote it off. “We don’t care about his personal garbage,” one Bronx woman barks at reporters. They liked that he was getting stuff done and was helping.
But when the same problems reared their head again, and Weiner was the subject of yet another sexting scandal, the public lost their patience. The documentary charts his dogged persistence in the race, including several incidents that put him at odds with the press and the voters. During one rally, Weiner seemed to redeem some of his dignity, explaining why he wouldn’t drop out by slinging some classic New Yorker rhetoric. But in the next scene, he shows he doesn’t know when to stop while he’s ahead. A man in a Jewish bakery says he’s “married to an Arab,” and Weiner goes on a tirade that shows he has no ability to be the bigger man.
But that “Arab” the man was referring to, Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s top advisor and wife to Weiner, turns out to be just as interesting a figure. Here is a woman who has stood by her husband despite her better judgment. “There is a victim of spousal abuse,” one talking head says on cable news. And in a crippling scene, we see a woman at her brink. The woman whom Weiner had been sexting with has staked out his campaign rally, and in their attempt to dodge her, his camp has plotted a cloak and dagger escape root to escape “Pineapple” (their code word). Moments before they step out the door, Abedin displays the most despondent look on her face before the camera pans down to a shot of her wedding ring.
Sure enough, just this morning at the time of writing, a new scandal has convinced Abedin to finally separate from Weiner. It simply doesn’t end with him. He’s always putting out fires, trying to get back to the issues. At one point Kriegman witnesses him falling to the ice over and over again to block shots on a hockey goal, a surprising metaphor for a man who’s always playing defense.
“Why have you let me film this,” Kriegman asks just as Weiner has lost his mayoral race. He doesn’t seem to know, acknowledging that a documentary about his scandal is the absolute worst thing he can imagine. But when you think that Weiner never actually committed adultery, never did anything illegal, you get the sense that he’s brought this controversy on himself. For as damaging as this film may turn out to be for his reputation, it’s not that he can’t just shake this attention, he needs it.
3 ½ stars