In the documentary Catfishing the story follows Nev as he builds an online relationship, platonic and romantic, with the fabricated personalities created by Angela, a overworked housewife who wants to have a more exciting life than the one she shares with her husband Vince and their children. Angela hides her own artistic accomplishments as belonging to her daughter, but also hides behind her daughter's online profile images. In these ways, Angela can live the kind of life she wanted before she married Vince, where she is appreciated for her artistic talents and desired for her appearance. Nev encounters her digital double-life through the daughter Abby and from that point of contact meets the rest of her family. Eventually he meets her daughter Megan. Overtime, Ned begins to develop feelings for Megan until he realizes that some of the amazing accomplishments she claims are actually ripped off of the web. This prompts the filmmakers to journey to find Megan (as well as Angela, Abby, etc.) and discover how much of this online world is fabricated. The deeper the filmmakers probe the more uncomfortable Nev becomes, lashing out at the others, particularly his brother, for not being sensitive to how these lies make him feel. He was, in essence, dating this woman who turned out to be deceiving him.
Yet, when Nev finally confronts Angela and shows her that they are aware of this deception, he is not angry or cruel. The documentary is not ultimately a revenge plot to expose her, but the careful revealment of a pathologically lonely and unhappy woman. The film's framing is very sympathetic to both Nev and Angela, allowing them both to vent their frustrations and the motivations that led them to these online interactions. Given the film's sincere efforts to accurately portray the fallout of catfishing, particularly Nev's unhappiness and Angela's shame and embarrassment, it surprised me that they glossed over the other victim of this fantasy fishing - Vince. The father of two boys who require constant care, Vince is the sole breadwinner in his household. However, he remains staunchly supportive of his wife's artistic career as well as her "professional" relationship with Nev. The film does not include the inevitable confrontation between Vince and Angela, who we know had at least some kind of romantic discourse. By not giving Vince the same amount of screentime as Angela and seeming to focus more on his insensitivity to Angela's problems, the documentary is insensitive to Vince's. It was honestly more surprising to me that Vince and Angela's relationship recovered than that Angela and Nev's did. As awful as her deception was for Nev, a stranger, it had to have been worse for her partner of 10 years.
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