Christian
blogger Kara Tippetts, founder of the website ‘Mundane Faithfulness’, wife to a
pastor and mother of four, settled in Colorado with her family in the hopes of
establishing a new church. Tragically,
the happy couple’s shared dream was cut short when she was suddenly diagnosed with
Stage 4 breast cancer. While sharing her
personal struggle with battling cancer and facing the prospect of death, Kara
Tippetts’ story caught the attention of Christian reality television producers
Jay and Sofia Lyons. Initially pitched
as a documentary series exploring the process of dealing with dying, upon
meeting Kara the project evolved into a feature length documentary film capturing
her final moments leading up to her tragic death.
A
delicately photographed documentary filled with grief and pain as well as joy
and a measure of grace, The Long Goodbye
– The Kara Tippetts Story (not to be confused with Robert Altman’s 1973
masterwork of the same name) is simultaneously deeply moving and oddly
frustrating. As a cancer survivor myself
(thyroid in my case) and having watched my own mother’s struggle with it
herself over the years, part of me is indeed touched by Kara’s ordeal and her
ability to still find joy in all of the gifts life still had to offer her. As a filmgoer judging a work objectively,
somewhere along the way, purely as a film and at the risk of sounding
heartless, The Long Goodbye – The Kara
Tippetts Story starts to repeat itself at the halfway mark. Somewhere in here is a powerful Dateline NBC episode. At feature length, the impact is diffused
somewhat.
Which
is not to say Kara’s struggle with all of her moments of good and bad
chronicled onscreen isn’t emotionally affecting. Pretty much everyone who came into contact with
Kara as well as those only familiar with her story emerged as changed people. Many who themselves have been struggling to
find meaning to their lives as their debilitating illnesses continue to erode
away at their quality of life found renewed strength to go on after
encountering Kara Tippetts. Friends and
family also found their own personal struggles put into perspective upon
encountering Kara’s ordeal and her inner strength to still find peace and
happiness amid her pain and suffering.
In
one of the film’s most profoundly sad moments, Kara found herself at the
epicenter of a media firestorm after reaching out to Brittany Maynard who upon
being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer announced her decision to take her
own life rather than die of natural causes.
Kara, believing dying with grace meant living life to the fullest end
rather than cutting it short with assisted suicide, pleaded with Brittany not
to take her own life. While Kara’s plea
was intended with love and sincerity, it wasn’t taken that way and she was
publicly attacked in the press as “insensitive”, a wrongful misjudgment of Kara’s
character which left her deeply hurt.
I’m
extremely conflicted in writing this review due to my own experiences with cancer. I’m personally touched by Kara’s story and
frustrated the filmmakers stretched the piece out to the point that it loses
some of it’s intended impact. On the one
hand I do recommend it to anyone who themselves is suffering from cancer or
anyone who knows a friend, sibling or loved one who is faced with the prospect
of dying. It teaches you a great deal of
how to enjoy every little moment in life and make the most of your days on
Earth. On the other hand, a powerful and
moving story about facing the fear of death with grace and strength of heart
can also still, in these filmmakers’ hands, become redundant. I’m glad to have become familiar with the
Kara Tippetts story but wish the filmmakers had more astute editors cognizant
of the tightrope walk between engaging or losing a viewer’s investment in the
story overseeing it.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki