Parents' Guide to What Jennifer Did

This documentary doesn't hide the truth of its true crime story, especially given the title, but perhaps it could have. Still, there are enough compelling elements in What Jennifer Did to keep most viewers enthralled, despite likely knowing generally what happened from the beginning. The mystery, then, mostly comes from why and how a "normal, post-college" daughter could get to a point where she "did" what she did. What was her upbringing like? What were her parents like? What was going on in Jennifer's life that led her to such decisions? How does a seemingly nice, hardworking, and well-liked family end up in a situation like this? Slowly uncovering and revealing answers to these questions is thrilling but also tragic.

Cleanly shot and quickly paced and edited, the story progresses nicely through interviews, dramatizations of events, and most intriguingly, police interviews that show Jennifer herself desperately trying to hide the truth. Coming in multiple times to talk about the events of the night in question, Jennifer just can't manage all her anxieties, worries, lies, and knowledge of what really happened and why, and by the time an expert is called in, her goose is cooked. For some, however, the end will leave an empty feeling, as it's hard to conclude any easy lesson from this tragedy. On one hand, the story provides an unfortunate example of the dangers of strict parenting, but this is largely unfair, as many kids experience similar strict parenting and don't end up doing what Jennifer did.