There’s no outside scrutiny to this story, but the trade-off is a deeply genuine sense of loss and longing; an outsider couldn’t deliver the raw exchanges these family members share.

The doc ends up a rich portrait of a complex human, full of interviews with intimates who would have been impossible to land if Hargitay hadn’t been involved.

What emerges, through raw reflections, frank conversations and illustrative archive clips of Mansfield herself is a revealing portrait of a woman who was beautiful, sharp-witted and warm but also enigmatic and inaccessible.

Opening up to her own cameras, Mariska reveals complex feelings and a desire to more fully understand her mythical mom. This makes the film strongly involving, with several moving moments along the way.