Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich

There is a very sensitive subject to this documentary, which admittedly is not the first, and I wholly acknowledge that. However it has had the benefit of access to some names more closely linked to the subject matter than some other documentaries.

For those in the UK, this entire scandal has been an eye opener, and Ghislane Maxwell is only part of the story, however this doc is supposed to delve deep into her psyche but I don't think it succeeds. I personally found it mostly shallow in that respect. I don't think we found any true answers. It goes without saying our disgust on what she was wholly involved in, and this documentary really I felt struggled to give us anything new to spear her with. Her psyche wasn't investigated enough.

There are a number of very good aspects, and my due respect to the victims and those who assisted them in their journey to win justice. I just felt that there was more to say and provide information, and this documentary just felt as if when it tried to attempt to give an overview of Ghislane Maxwell it never said anything what isn't much already known or was just guesswork. I just feel there is more disturbingly to this story.

I assume legal reasons limits what could be delved into, which is frustrating but as long as she is not made some icon, then the better for it. I feel this documentary thankfully avoided that and did well in that par.

In any case, I found this not the most helpful documentary. She is (understandably & correctly) a new public hate figure, and she will hopefully serve the rest of her life behind bars. There are though others involved still to be challenged on their involvement and so this should not all stop here. To her victims, my respect to you all, and I hope further justice for you and everyone affected.

I suppose for anyone who hasn't been following anything to do with Jeffery Epstein much would find this hot gossip and juicy news. In some areas maybe but all up alot of the documentary besides some small easy to find information on her own case is just rehashing old news. I think its very fair to say you dont really need to watch this to know whats going on which is quite disappointing because there should be so much more to say. The quality of the documentary is good for it does have, it explains things well and still keeps things interesting. I would have rated this higher if it didn't feel like one of those doccos that was just made for the sake of making. From a Journalist prospective I believe more effort could have been involved.

This was a film about the young girls Maxwell delivered to Epstein. But there was more going on.

There was an island, there were powerful people flying to the island. Girls were groomed and provided for these powerful and wealthy people.

It left out the other powerful people affected - with the exception of a prince Andrew.

The documentary focused on Ghislaine, going from past to present. It discussed her family life, her father who died (fell of yacht) and how after his death, huge discrepancies in his companies' finances were revealed, including his fraudulent misappropriation of the Mirror Group pension fund.

More could have been done to honestly explore her interesting childhood, her upbringing (father Jewish, mother protestant), career with her father, what she was like growing up etc.

It was shallow and focused somewhat on her life of glamour without delving into the details of her repulsive psyche. It offered no insight or truth.

6.7 stars.

I don't rate documentaries above a 7 usually, because the overall experience must be taken into account with all my ratings. A documentary is very informative, but it's not something I will watch more than once, at least not 99% of them. There are very few I'd re-watch. Anyways, enough of that. The point is any great documentary will only provide a limited amount of entertainment for me, and even with all the great information, I must still be entertained. I watch TV for that reason primarily. And so, is this a good documentary compared to most? I suppose it would be if it was something fresh, but we already knew all this stuff, it was just a matter of time. And so this documentary is average at best, but not too bad.

Ghislaine was probably the real monster behind it all. She coordinated all of this for him, sure he was a very bad man, but he was not necessarily the mastermind. Or, maybe he was the mastermind, but she was the person who made his wishes come to fruition. He needed a charming woman to put his ideas into motion.

We can see from a very young age that she was this sort of an organizer. Her friends talk about her being so charismatic and the life of the party and she knew how to throw parties and get people together for a purpose. When she had an agenda, she knew how to make it happen and how to put things together and she did it for Jeff, because she wanted his approval maybe, but that's no excuse.

I struggle with parts of this case. I do not struggle with anything that has to do with 14 yo girls. However I do struggle with aspiring models, actresses & massage therapists acting completely shocked at being propositioned for sexual favors in return for money. The Jeffrey Epstein version interviews Annie Farmer's sister who was/is an artist & was receiving gifts, being put up in mansions to nothing but her art, etc & then at a certain point was propositioned for sex...ran in to a room and barricaded her self & left...but then allowed her younger sister to go there & surprise surprise the same thing happened

I guess my heart is black because it seems like anyone with half a brian & a bit of savvy would not accept any of these "gifts" w/o assuming there would eventually be a quid pro quo & at some point the giftee would want something in return.

Of course I'm only speaking of the women that are of age(which varies drastically from state to state & country to country. In fact 16 is the age of consent in most states in the USA). Maybe my ego is low? But did these women think that they were so amazing that people were just going to sponsor their careers, academic goals at the tune of thousands of dollars because they were so smart and interesting? The world is FULL of people doing very demeaning things for far less money.

These docs also put their finger in the scale by showing old photos of these women either years prior to the incident, or when they have no makeup on & look their absolute youngest.

I also would not be surprised if the reason we don't hear about all of the other "friends" of JE/GM is because there are secret settlement negotiations going on with them to keep their names out of the media.

Toward the end of the "Documentary" I found it very rich for an Attorney w/Jeffrey Boice's history to say something to the effect of "...these people need to be heard, powerful people can't...blah blah..."...Boice was one of the attorneys that AMBUSHED Tyler Shultz(the main whistleblower of the Theranos case)at his grandfather George Shultz's home in an attempt to force him to recant & sign NDA documents. An event that basically wrecked Tyler's relationship with his grandfather.

I realize attorneys are going to do attorney things & are essential(esp being questioned by police in ANY facet. ALWAYS say you want an attorney present...no matter what). But it's a little cringe when Attorney's that mostly have represented the uber wealthy bang the table for the little guy

Anyway in the zeitgeist of our times, there is no way a documentary delving in to this case &/or subject matter can even dip its toes in the balanced waters. The closest they came here was reading some of the cross examination & immediately calling it "rough" or "harsh" when I'm sure everyone of those attorneys would have taken the exact same plays from that playbook had they been retained by the other side.

I liked the small bit that talked about Ghislane's background. Being an American I wasn't as familiar with her as I'm sure people from the UK are. But nothing else was really illuminating if you've even just barely been following the heels of coverage this case has gotten(seems like the media almost trying to make up for dropping the ball on the original JE conviction?)

All that said I give this a 2/5...on par with one of the better episodes of the crappy, paint-by-numbers American true crime shows like "Dateline" & "48hrs"