One of the few things Netflix is fairly consistent with quality-wise is their original documentaries, especially their true crime ones. While the Oscar-nominated The Perfect Neighbor and The Crash had their issues, they were compelling fare and the "Whoa!" factor definitely bumps up a notch with their latest, A Toxic Love Story.
US Marshal Ian Diaz had met and fallen for Angela Connell in January 2016 after meeting her at a Starbucks. They were married within weeks and she was pregnant with twins shortly thereafter. However, Angela began getting increasingly threatening emails from someone calling herself "LilithIsTruth" threatening her for stealing the sender's life with Ian, threatening to have Angela raped and killed.
They believed Ian's ex-fiance, Michelle Hadley, who'd left in August 2015 the condo they'd purchased together after they'd broken up, was the sender. Matters escalate when an ad appears on Craig's List, supposedly from Angela, seeking random men to participate in her rape fantasy, encouraging them to show up at the condo and force themselves upon her. One respondent who went to the condo then chickened out because the setup seemed hinky is interviewed, but Angela soon calls the cops again - they had made repeated reports about the emails and gotten a restraining order again Michelle - reporting that a masked man had attacked her in her garage, but left. With this latest transgression, Michelle is arrested and tossed in slam with a million dollar bail. Sensationalistic media coverage ensues.
But the story takes a turn when we're introduced to an ex-boyfriend of Angela's who recounts a wild tale of his relationship with her which seemed to be repeating with Ian. This leads to a series of revelations about Angela and the wrap-up of the story only halfway through the doc's runtime which made me wonder what more was to be told. Plenty, it turns out as Michelle steps into the spotlight to explain her side of the story which gets pretty crazy.
It's best to go into A Toxic Love Affair as cold as possible because the initial twists are very easy to guess - I'm pretty sure Netflix rewrote the description on the listing because it gave it away and was updated between noticing it was available and watching a day later - but director Alexandra Lacey cleverly lays out the story for maximum WTFness. However, with Ian and Angela refusing to participate, we never truly understand their motivations in this clusterfark and a couple of final revelations raise more questions that go unanswered.
Still, A Toxic Love Story delivers what it promises in the title in a tidy package.
Score: 7.5/10. Catch it on Netflix.
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