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The Trials of Ted Haggard
SPECIAL: HBO, Thursday 1/29 at 8:00p (45 minutes)
Starring
Ted Haggard,
and
Alexandra Pelosi
Alexandra Pelosi follows up on Colorado pastor Ted Haggard's life after he was kicked out of his church for buying drugs and being involved with a male prostitute.
| GENRE(S): |
Documentary
|
| CREATED BY: |
Alexandra Pelosi
|
| FIRST AIR DATE: |
January 29, 2009 |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
88
Baltimore Sun David Zurawik
Pelosi chronicles what happened to Haggard and his family with sensitivity, clarity and perspective.
80
Hollywood Reporter Ray Richmond
What a profoundly sad, often invasive but ultimately fascinating documentary portrait this is of the fallen pastor of Colorado's New Life Church.
80
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
HBO's The Trials of Ted Haggard offers an extraordinarily humane depiction of the former leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, who fell from their good graces after a scandal involving gay sex and drugs.
80
The New York Times Alessandra Stanley
The Trials of Ted Haggard is strangely intriguing....It’s a cautionary tale for disgraced public figures; for viewers it’s a master class in the art of self-serving remorse and hubris dressed up as humility.
80
Variety Brian Lowry
Having clearly gained his confidence, Pelosi peels back the symbol enough to expose fleeting glimpses of the man underneath -- peddling only himself, and, as in his door-to-door gig, unable to make the sale.
75
Slant Magazine
The surprisingly compelling documentary The Trials of Ted Haggard chronicles the hardships former mega-church pastor Ted Haggard has faced in the years following his fall from "grace."
70
PopMatters Cynthia Fuchs
His struggle remains unresolved in Trials, on multiple levels. Even as the film appears “sympathetic” toward Haggard, it never adopts his worldview.
70
Los Angeles Times Mary McNamara
The Trials of Ted Haggard is a strange, disturbing, imperfect but in the end heartbreaking little film that may wind up being the most powerful indictment of homophobia since "Brokeback Mountain."
67
Newsday Verne Gay
This portrait -- even more than [Pelosi's] amusing 2002 puff piece on Bush's 2000 campaign, "Journeys With George" -- reveals her strengths and weaknesses as a reporter. She's got a good ear and an open heart. She just needs a little more left-brain action.
60
Washington Post Alan Cooperman
No matter where you stand on the culture wars, you can't help but like him. He's tortured, and for all this film's real and manufactured intimacy, Pelosi never plumbs how.
50
New York Post Linda Stasi
Pelosi should have done more than be satisfied that Haggard (who looks like he would have talked to a rock) talked to her. It takes more than luck to be insightful and she missed it all. Oh yeah...aside from that, Ted's lies do make interesting viewing.
50
Salon Heather Havrilesky
Pelosi's film doesn't really provide the sort of unforgiving peek behind the curtain that we might've hoped for. At times, in fact, The Trials of Ted Haggard feels less like a search for the truth and more like a collaboration between Pelosi (as publicist) and Haggard (as client with a tarnished image) to pull Haggard's name out of the gutter.
50
Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart
It is long on sympathy and short on insight.
50
Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
The movie has the style, but none of the substance, of intimacy.
50
Entertainment Weekly Nicholas Fonseca
Documentarian Alexandra Pelosi handles Haggard with kid gloves and barely speaks to the wife and children whose lives he all but destroyed. The result is 45 minutes ill-spent with, well, a loser.
40
New York Daily News David Hinckley
The Haggard of this film has a slightly more humble tone than the Haggard of the past. Still, he never details any specific wrongdoing, speaking only in terms of struggles, temptations and weaknesses.
 The average user rating for this tv show is 5.0 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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