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Scene from 'My Kid Could Paint That'

Marla Olmstead puts brush to canvas in a scene from 'My Kid Could Paint That.'

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My Kid Could Paint That (Unrated) ***½

By Connie Ogle

My Kid Could Paint That poses myriad intriguing questions about the world of modern art, but the one that forms the framework for this fascinating documentary involves 4-year-old Marla Olmstead, whose big, vivid, color-drenched paintings, jokingly displayed at a local Binghamton, N.Y., coffee shop, landed her an article in the local newspaper.

The New York Times picked up on the story. Gallery owner Anthony Brunelli stepped in. And suddenly little Marla and her parents faced more demand for her work than any adult artist could comfortably produce.

At first, Amir Bar-Lev's mesmerizing documentary indicates that it will follow Marla's path to fame, how she and her family cope with the onslaught of press demands and fame and how much a 4-year-old can even understand about art (not much, judging from Marla's complete disinterest in even talking about the paintings on camera). Even this basic story offers plenty of food for thought: Why do her crazy/beautiful abstracts strike a chord with so many art lovers? Are they responding to the work or to the fact that an innocent child created it? Is Marla's success a slap in the face to the art establishment, or is a 4-year-old truly the quintessential expressionist?

Bar-Lev interviews the Olmsteads, Brunelli, art experts, Marla's fans and the reporter who first wrote about her, who offers perhaps the most penetrating insights on fame, pop culture and the wisdom of thrusting one's children into the limelight.

But then a funny thing happens: 60 Minutes does a piece on Marla, and anybody who has ever seen the CBS news show can tell you what happens next. When the segment airs, the Olmsteads discover that journalist Charlie Rose has interviewed experts who don't believe Marla is doing her own painting. (Judging from the stunned reaction of the Olmsteads, they've never seen 60 Minutes.)

The rest of the film covers the backlash that follows and the Olmsteads' attempts to defend themselves from the accusation that Mark, a dabbling artist, helps his daughter with her canvases. They release a DVD of Marla working on a painting from beginning to end. Bar-Lev, his trust clearly shaken, wants to make his own recording. The Olmsteads argue that Marla responds differently to her work when someone else is filming her. Fair enough; they're talking about a 4-year-old.

At one point as tensions flare, Bar-Lev tries to apologize for reducing Laura Olmstead to tears. She looks at him and says, "It's documentary gold." She's right. My Kid Could Paint That is documentary gold, and you will have formed an opinion on the controversy by the time you leave the theater. You may not know art, but you'll know what you like.

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