Living Dolls: The Making of a Child Beauty Queen

Plot

In this documentary produced for the HBO cable network, child beauties and their parents throw themselves passionately into the national pageant circuit made famous by the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. Presented with only a few factual intertitles and without voice-over narration, the 90-minute film focuses on delicate five-year-old blonde Swan Brooner and her no-nonsense mother, Robin Browne, as they try to parlay Swan's success at local beauty pageants into national recognition and cash prizes. A pair of big-bucks coaches, Shane King and Michael Butler, train Swan to walk, dance, sing, and flirt, even as they continue to groom Michael's daughter -- reigning champion Leslie Butler, age seven -- for a comeback after a nine-month sabbatical. Following these and other players from one weekend contest to the next, the film climaxes with the Dallas-based Gingerbread Pageant, where Robin hopes Swan will win back some of the 70,000 dollars she has invested in the girl's career so far. Produced for HBO's long-running America Undercover series, Living Dolls: The Making of a Child Beauty Queen premiered May 13, 2001. Writer/director Shari Cookson previously helmed HBO's Skinheads USA, while producer Linda Otto has worked on a number of child-themed films, including Unspeakable Acts, The Ryan White Story, Adam, and Adam: His Song Continues. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Review

As gripping as it is disturbing, this brilliant film transforms the background of the JonBenet Ramsey murder case into a compelling documentary subject in its own right. Part rags-to-riches saga, part exposé, Living Dolls forces its audience into complicity with the deranged parents who devote their passion (and their cash) to turning their children into wan little mannequins on the child beauty-pageant circuit. Eschewing intrusive narration, writer/director Shari Cookson allows the words and behavior of the participants to speak for itself. Flamboyant coaches, determined parents, and the proto-Britney Spears kids themselves all throw heart, mind, body, and wallet into the world of pageantry with an almost psychotic determination. But the numbers speak for themselves. Robin Browne, mother of prime protagonist Swan Brooner, works three jobs so she can funnel tens of thousands of dollars into costumes, photographs, training, and pageant entry fees. Swan's biggest cash award to date is a paltry 2,500 dollars. Presented as fiery condemnation, such information would be the stuff of a five-minute tabloid TV news story. But Cookson wisely spends time showing us why pageantry is so compelling. After watching little Swan rehearse, undergo makeovers, and suffer defeat week after week, it's undeniably thrilling to see her finally take home a top prize. And when the girl's paid advisers allow their little client to spend an evening swimming in the pool at their plush nouveau riche digs -- presumably financed by the 500 little beauties they've coached -- Browne explains that she wants her daughter to get used to the finer things in life so that later on she'll do whatever she must to attain them. This all-too-sensible game plan for achieving the American Dream is chilling enough in its own right, but it's not nearly as gruesome as the visage of Swan on the winner's platform: a little beauty with blank Barbie eyes, a tiara on her head, and a wad of cash clutched in her tiny hands. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Credit

Gloria L. Morris - Co-producer, Shari Cookson - Director, Charlton McMullan - Editor, Sheila Nevins - Executive Producer, James Mcvay - Composer (Music Score), Sandra Chandler - Cinematographer, Linda Otto - Producer, Shari Cookson - Producer, Jean Guest - Producer, Shari Cookson - Screenwriter, Fawn Yacker - Additional Cinematography, Wayne De LaRoche - Additional Cinematography, Geoff Bartz - Consulting Editor, Howard Lipstone - Production Executive, Nancy Abraham - Supervising Producer

Previous:	Living Doll (1990 Film), Living Death (2006 Film)
Next:	Living Dream (1996 Film), Living Dreams (1988 Film)