The Jaundiced Eye

In the wake of the recent "name and shame" campaigns from tabloid newspapers, The Jaundiced Eye is a timely reminder of what can happen when people let their hearts rule their heads.

In 1989 Melvin Matthews and his son Stephen - a young gay man who had fathered a child when he was 17 years old - were accused of molesting Stephen's son by the boy's mother and her new partner. In spite of an absence of physical evidence of abuse, the two men were given lengthy jail sentences, largely on the basis of the child's testimony and a chlamydia test.

After a long struggle Melvin and Stephen finally managed to have their convictions overturned. In the process a catalogue of errors are uncovered. The chlamydia test was designed for vaginal use only - e-coli bacteria naturally present in the rectum cause it to give false positive results, while the questioning of Stephen's son by well-meaning but misguided professionals was leading to say the least.

Ultimately, an inversion of the general position that it is better that the guilty go free than the innocent be punished is highlighted.

The story of Melvin and Stephen Matthews is one that deserved to be told. Unfortunately, the manner of its telling by writer-director Nonny de la Pena is almost as inadequate as the US justice system the two men confronted.

The Jaundiced Eye is documentary film-making by numbers, utterly predictable and devoid of imaginative touches. On the plus side, by being a non-fiction film it avoids the problems encountered by the likes of Hollow Reed; a film that could only counter one negative stereotype by simultaneously invoking others.