Sundance review: Documentary about Natalie Wood aims to shift focus to her brilliant career, away from her tragic death

‘Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind’

★★★

Playing in the Documentary Premieres program of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Running time: 100 minutes.

Screens again: Wednesday, Jan. 29, 9 p.m., SLC Library (Salt Lake City); Thursday, Jan. 30, 3:30 p.m., The Ray (Park City); Saturday, Feb. 1, 10 p.m., Redstone 2 (Park City).

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Laurent Bouzereau’s documentary “Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind” aims to hit the reset button on the public’s perception of the late actress — to think more about her stellar career and less about her tragic drowning death in 1981.

The prime mover here isn’t Bouzereau, the director, but the film’s executive producer, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Wood’s daughter and the onscreen interviewer of Wood’s first (and third) husband, and Natasha’s stepdad, actor Robert Wagner.

Bouzereau does a solid job of compiling ample clips of Wood’s acting career, from her days as a child star (“Miracle on 34th Street” being her most famous pre-teen role) to her adult stardom in “Rebel Without a Cause,” “Splendor in the Grass,” “West Side Story,” “Gypsy,” “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” and many others. He also collects plenty of interviews from her friends and co-stars. (Robert Redford credits Wood for jump-starting his early movie career, by endorsing him for roles in “Inside Daisy Clover” and “This Property Is Condemned”).

Two of Wood’s leading men are notably absent: Warren Beatty, her co-star in “Splendor in the Grass” with whom she had a romance after ending her first marriage to Wagner; and Christopher Walken, her romantic lead in her final movie, “Brainstorm” — and the other passenger on Wagner and Wood’s yacht on the night Wood disappeared near Catalina.

The meat of the documentary is Gregson Wagner interviewing Wagner about what happened that night in 1981. Fighting tears and years of reticence, Wagner talks about an argument with Walken before Wood went to bed for the night — and how she wasn’t in her cabin when Wagner came to bed. The interview also covers the years of tabloid speculation about Wood’s death, and the recent reopening of the case.

There’s no doubt that Gregson Wagner believes fervently that her stepdad didn’t kill his wife. The documentary won’t end such speculation, but it makes a clear argument for the Wagners’ side while reminding movie lovers of Wood’s gifts as an actor and a friend to many people in Hollywood.