Review: Mommy Dead and Dearest

An "ill" Gypsy Rose with mother Dee Dee

Another documentary I saw on the flight to Hong Kong was Mommy Dead and Dearest that was released in 2017, about the shocking tale of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard.

The film opens with Gypsy Rose at the police station and is told that her mother is dead.

She reacts with horror and fear, but the young woman is arrested -- for her role in her mother's murder, while her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn did the dirty deed.

Gypsy Rose was sentenced to 10 years in jail

But soon the motive becomes clear and viewers begin to realise what kind of life Gypsy Rose had up until this point.

When Gypsy Rose was a baby, her mother claimed her daughter had numerous illnesses, and constantly took her to see doctors, who prescribed medicines that would make her have those actual symptoms, and even underwent surgeries that she didn't need to have.

Dee Dee claimed her daughter had muscular dystrophy and couldn't walk, which led to charitable people and communities giving them free housing and donating clothes and necessities to them.

However in reality, Dee Dee had Munchausen syndrome, where a person fakes illnesses for attention, and in this case she forced her child to be sick for over two decades in a horrific form of physical and mental abuse.

There is a lot of archival footage and photographs of them in the film, which tries to be as objective as possible.

She married Anderson but are now separated

The documentary features long interviews with Gypsy Rose in her prison uniform, as well as with doctors and psychiatrists, police, lawyers, and her estranged father, grandparents and other relatives. It seems Dee Dee was shunned in the family as she stole from them and never seemed to tell the truth.

Gypsy Rose has picked up this trait as well to get what she wants, making one wonder how much they can trust what she says. 

But at the same time can you blame her? She spent so much time with her mother that it was the only behaviour she knew of, and her naivety is apparent in how she and Godejohn planned the murder. Gypsy Rose was desperate to get out of her situation but didn't think much of the future or the consequences. 

She didn't have much experience in making friends, let alone romantic relationships, and mostly went along with what Godejohn wanted in their sexual relationship. 

Therefore it's surprising Gypsy Rose married a Louisana teacher by the name Ryan Anderson while in prison in 2022, but it turns out last month she announced her separation from him after being released in December last year.

One wonders how much rehabilitation Gypsy Rose has had in prison and since she left jail serving a 10-year sentence. She has had a tough life and a skewed outlook that will greatly affect her future in her 30s and beyond.

Mommy Dead and Dearest

Director Erin Lee Carr

82 minutes