NORDIC-2 Review of There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane

There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (2011 TV Movie)

A bizarre, mysterious, and horrifying accident

[7/10 · 28 August 2019]

On July 26, 2009 Diane Schuler drove a mini-van the wrong way on New York State's Taconic Parkway for 1.7 miles before her vehicle crashed head-on with another car, killing a total of eight people, four of whom were children. Autopsy toxicology reports showed that Diane Schuler (who was one of the fatalities) was both extremely drunk and very high on THC when she crashed. 'There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane' explores the accident in detail and chronicles the efforts of Diane Schuler's husband and sister-in-law to clear her name after law enforcement and the media branded her as grossly negligent. Giving Diane the benefit of the doubt, 'There's Something Wrong...' formulates the hypothesis that Schuler was suffering form severe pain due to an abscessed tooth and - while driving - drank a large amount of vodka in a very short time an effort to quell the pain. Intoxication led to delirium and the accident. Plausible? Perhaps, but highly unlikely. What the film doesn't enunciate or even go near is a rather obvious and depressing conclusion that should have been floated from the get-go: that Diane Schuler was a secret alcoholic - and had been for a long time, no doubt. Her husband had no idea because she was so skilled at keeping her addiction under wraps.