I watched a documentary film entitled Casting Jonbenet. It documented not only the synopsis of the death of 6 year old pageant queen Jonbenet Ramsey, but it also documented the search for proper cast members to play the roles of her and her family for a fictional program. It displayed the search for cast members to play Jonbenet herself, her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, her brother, Burke Ramsey, John Mark Karr, and police officers for Boulder, Colorado. It showed each cast member for each role reading the scripts, and trying to be as much like their characters as they possibly could as they ran through each dramatic scene of her death. It also documented the speculations and views that each of the actors had on how she passed away.

This film was definitely interesting. It was the first time I had ever seen an authentic casting call for a real event, especially about something so heart wrenching and fascinating. What I liked the most about the film was getting a glimpse into how the actor’s felt about Jonbenet’s death. It was so strange to see so many different people with so many diverse views about the same situation. What I didn’t like was how the actors weren’t all that professional. Some of the actors gave it 100%, and showed true emotion, and some didn’t try. I found some of the actors rather bland, especially during the portion where they were shooting Patsy Ramsey calling the police after finding a ransom note, and reporting Jonbenet’s abduction.

There was very little music, which I didn’t particularly care for. The lighting and editing was especially strange; the way they cut and edited the scenes made the film seem very thrown together. And most of the film was quite dark, so it was hard to see the actors. Watching a portion of Sea Bright Rising in class helped me out, because it made it easier to figure out what not to do.

Truthfully, I would recommend the film if you want to gain general knowledge of Jonbenet’s abduction and murder. However, I wouldn’t recommend the film for the purpose of finding out how to put together a film, which was the sole purpose of it. I give this film a 6/10. The main reason is because I learned a lot about the process of what actually happened in the moments leading up to Jonbenet’s death, how she was found, and how it all unraveled. But I didn’t learn much about the actual casting, aside from the interviews with each actor. I believe that if they had created a film about surviving people who were close to this case, it would have been a much better film. I think the short casting process and the bland acting dragged the film down, and I really wanted to see more from it. But if you want to see a film that documents how an authentic casting call works, I do recommend watching the process of finding actors that closely resembled Jonbenet and her family.