“Candy”, with Jessica Biel, a good option for fans of true crime – Cultura

Candy Montgomery seems to have it all. Housewife in Wylie, a suburb of Dallas, Texas, in the late 1970s, happily married, with two children, many friends, influence in the local church. Slim and athletic, she plays volleyball weekly.

This is the cover letter for “Candy”, a newcomer miniseries on the Star+ platform that recreates a shocking crime. Dozens of axes on a suburban housewife? For more than 40 years, the murder of Betty Gore, which took place on June 13, 1980, has filled the imagination of Americans. Books and documentaries have already been made and, this year, two fiction series.

“Candy”, which brings Jessica Biel in the title role, the first of them. HBO also promises, for 2022, “Love and death”, starring Elizabeth Olsen and with Nicole Kidman as producer.

true crime

The pilot episode of “Candy” is a masterpiece – and it’s a shame that the rhythm isn’t maintained in the following four. Apparently a normal day in the life any Wylie residents note. Betty (Melanie Lynskey, irreproachable) is upset again that Allan (Pablo Schreiber) is going away. The baby cries non-stop. Her annoyance and frustration get to the point where Betty turns on the vacuum cleaner to stifle her crying.

Meanwhile, the Montgomery family is as busy as ever. Candy (Biel) finishes her husband Pat’s (Timothy Simons) lunch while the kids eat breakfast. A third child, Christina (Antonella Rose), appears at the table. Betty’s daughter, Becky’s best friend (Aven Lotz), Candy and Pat’s firstborn.

The mezone has to run, as it has to attend a children’s performance and take them to swimming lessons. In the meantime, she must stop by Betty’s house to pick up Christina’s mai.

This beginning is told slowly, with great attention to the objects in the scene – the vacuum cleaner, the newspaper, the ticking of the clock. Everything is so ordinary and ordinary that it is immediately clear that something very serious is going to happen. And in this waiting we see nuances of the characters.

Candy arrives at Betty’s at 10 am – she was supposed to go at noon. Begrudgingly, the mistress of the house lets the other one pass. And only later, when the weather is up, will we see Candy getting back in the car. Wet hair, bloody head and blood on his hands.

Totally in shock, she goes to her own house, takes a shower, puts on the laundry. Moments later, we see her arriving late for the girls’ rehearsal – but she manages to get them swimming. And Christina with the mai Candy had brought home.

This is the first episode. Details of the crime, and especially Candy’s motives, will only be presented later. Police drama with linear narrative, the miniseries goes back and forth in time. Episodes 2 and 3 bring the lives of the Gores and the Montgomerys two years earlier.

We discover the relationships between the characters and why the friendship between Candy and Betty has soured. We also learn that Candy, long before she became an assassin, was not the model woman she painted for others. And that Betty had a life before she became a house slave.

The last two episodes deal more with Candy’s crime and trial – Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel’s husband, makes a cameo as the sheriff in charge of the case. The tone of the series changes considerably in the final part, becoming almost a parody of American middle-class suburban life. The trial is a circus of horrors, with scalaphobic theories created by the historic defense attorney (the great Ral Esparza) of the r.

“CANDY”

Five-episode miniseries, available on Star .