Sophie: A Murder in West Cork review: It's very watchable, but feels uncomfortably close
Sophie: A Murder in West Cork
Is it OK to enjoy a true-crime murder mystery?
We loved and in our house, even though they were about women who were brutally murdered. The people who make these shows tell us that they’re about justice and honouring the victims and we play along, even though we know that it’s bullshit and the real reason we watch these things is that they usually give us incredible access to the main suspect.
It happens again on ( Netflix from June 30 ). As you probably know, the body of Sophie Toscan du Plantier was found outside her West Cork home in December 1996. She had been beaten to death with a concrete block. Ian Bailey, who has always protested his innocence, was arrested for questioning but released without charge. And he is the central figure in this latest documentary.
It’s not that Sophie is relegated to the margins. The first episode of this three-part series is mainly about her life, explaining how the wife of a leading light in French cinema ended up alone at Christmas time in her cottage outside Schull in West Cork. The story is grippingly told, using the ever-changing light and landscape around West Cork to convey terror and foreboding. Her family is heavily involved: bright, thoughtful people with an unmissable sadness in their eyes. Her aunt pops up now and again with a touch of cartoon French flamboyance. It’s all very watchable, particularly when we get to the second episode and Ian Bailey takes centre stage.
There is a weird scene early in that episode where we follow Ian Bailey around his garden, in the current time, and he talks about lettuce and leeks. It’s obscene in the context of a dead woman, but it’s good telly too, as we get a chance to form our own opinion about the chief suspect in the case.
I think this is when started to catch in my throat. I shouldn’t be enjoying anything about this show, let alone ramblings around a garden. My wife said the same thing when we were talking about it after breakfast this morning. And then it occurred to us — we probably had more empathy with the victim because she died just down the road. Other victims like Teresa Halbach ( ) and Kathleen Peterson ( ) might have died horribly, but that was in the United States. Sophie died in the rocky land outside Schull, not far from where I went hiking last month. The locals and ‘blow-ins’ interviewed are all familiar, even though I never met any of them. It felt uncomfortably close and ghoulish.
In the end, I just felt terribly sorry for Sophie Toscan Du Plantier and her family. I stopped wondering who actually killed her. And when that happens in a murder mystery, it’s time to turn off. Maybe we should all turn off true crime and move on.
